PRIVATE schools are imposing unofficial limits on the numbers of Chinese pupils they admit because of fears that British parents will be deterred from sending their children there.

Schools including Wellington College in Berkshire, the Leys school in Cambridge and Brighton college, East Sussex, have decided to restrict their numbers of foreign pupils under pressure from growing Chinese demand. Some schools are adopting the policy to preserve their character, while others are reacting to concerns among parents.

According to the most recent figures from the Independent Schools Council, the numbers from mainland China have risen from a few hundred in 2000 to 2,345 this year. When added to pupils from Hong Kong, the total rises to 8,652, 40% of all foreign pupils. There are just 1,888 German pupils, the next biggest foreign contingent.

Ralph Lucas, editor of the Good Schools Guide, said many schools did not want to take more than 10% of their pupils from China although, given the demand, they could easily surpass this number. “To keep the traditional feel of an English public school, they are setting limits,” he said. “Chinese pupils sometimes tend to keep themselves to themselves.”

The growing numbers have sparked a backlash among some British parents. Margie Burnet Ward, headmistress of Wycliffe college in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, has cut the number of pupils from China in recent years. “The fact that dare not speak its name is that parents are saying, ‘We don’t want to come to you because you have too many Chinese pupils’,” she said.

“Five years ago we had 90 pupils from China and now we have 45 . . . Chinese children want to study maths and physics and parents are concerned that their child could be the only UK student in those classes.”

Mark Slater, headmaster of the Leys, which has about 8% of its pupils from the Far East, said he believed in limiting the intake, although he added: “Up to a certain percentage it is a very healthy aspect of the school.”

Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington, said: “They’re desperate in China to come to England.” He plans to set an informal limit of 15%-20% of foreign students. At Brighton, the ceiling is 8%.

For some independent schools Chinese pupils are, however, a lifeline. Some single-sex schools, particularly girls’ boarding institutions, are struggling as more British parents opt for coeducational day schools.

Chinese parents, by contrast, almost always pay full boarding fees and are willing to send their children to single-sex schools.

Nick Leiper, director of admissions for Ampleforth college, North Yorkshire, said some schools were now moving so aggressively into China that they were employing brokers to supply pupils in return for 10% of the first term’s fees.

Before British rule ended in 1997, many Hong Kong Chinese opted for a British private education because of its social cachet. Now, with mainland China’s economy booming, the motives have changed. Parents from China see an English-language education as the gateway to an international career.

While most applicants are the children of the country’s new rich, others come from less well-off backgrounds, with members of extended families clubbing together to pay fees.

Many leading schools argue they are so popular that they could fill their places with children from Hong Kong and mainland China. Some, including Harrow and Dulwich college in London, have even opened branch schools in China.

Others have no plans to curb the numbers of Chinese. At Roe-dean, the girls’ school near Brighton, one-third of the sixth form are from China and one-third from other foreign countries. “Some schools may have quotas, but we do not,” said a spokeswoman.

Heathfield St Mary’s school in Ascot, Berkshire, has resisted the financial benefits of recruitment from China. Frances King, the headmistress, said: “We are a very small boarding school and the interest in our school has increased. The Chinese are looking for entry into UK or American universities. If there are a lot pupils coming from one place I have to look at it every year.

“We are an English boarding school and the Chinese pupils want to feel that they are coming to an English school. We like to have cultural diversity.”

Additional reporting: Tom Baird

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