Shanghai · History
Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi: A Second Dulwich Campus for the West
Opened in August 2016 in Minhang, Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi brought the 400-year-old Dulwich heritage to families on the western side of the city, growing to around 1,400 students across ages 2 to 18.
Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi opened its doors in August 2016, the ninth school in the Dulwich College International (DCI) network and the second to serve Shanghai. Its purpose was straightforward: families living on the Puxi side of the city had for years faced a long commute to the network's original Shanghai campus in Pudong's Jinqiao district, which had been operating since 2003. A western campus answered that gap.
Origins
DCI itself was co-founded in 2003 by Fraser White and Karen Yung, who struck a 100-year global licensing agreement with Dulwich College London — an institution founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn — making it the first British independent school to take its practices and ethos to China. The Pudong campus, which opened that year with 23 students, became the template for everything that followed. Puxi was, in effect, the network's proof that a second Shanghai site could work: same heritage, same values, same curriculum, different side of the river.
The Puxi campus sits at 2000 Qian Pu Jing Road in the Maqiao area of Minhang District, in the leafy southern reaches of the city. It was purpose-built from the outset, covering 40,000 square metres of green land. David Ingram, who joined the Dulwich team in preparation for the 2016 opening, became the founding Head of College, drawing on what he described as 22 years of leadership experience in Asian international schools.
Growth and Campus Expansion
The school grew steadily through its first years. In 2019 it joined FOBISIA, the federation that promotes British-style education across Asia and runs annual sporting and musical competitions for member schools. That same year it was accepted into the Council of International Schools (CIS) as a member school, following a rigorous evaluation process involving learning observations and interviews with students, staff and parents.
By 2022 the campus was running out of room. The college announced a significant expansion: a custom-built four-floor Senior School building adding 40 new classrooms, representing a 25 per cent increase in usable space, equivalent to an additional 9,632 square metres. New primary and early-years classrooms, specialist teaching spaces and extra-curricular facilities were built alongside it. The expansion was timed to keep pace with growing senior cohorts preparing for IGCSE and the IB Diploma.
In 2023 the college completed the joint CIS and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation process, receiving formal confirmation from both bodies. The WASC commission confirmed the school met its criteria for accreditation, adding a second major external quality mark to the CIS membership already held.
Curriculum and Identity
The curriculum follows the English National Curriculum, adapted for an international student body, with IGCSE in the middle school years and the IB Diploma Programme at the top of the school. A dual-language approach in Mandarin and English runs through the early years, known internally as DUCKS (Dulwich College Kindergarten), covering the toddler to Year 2 age group. Mandarin continues as a subject across all year groups. The school is also notable for being, according to the DCI network, the first school in China to pursue accreditation as a Curiosity Approach setting, a framework for early-years pedagogy that emphasises sustained shared thinking and child-led exploration.
The four school houses — Song, Moussa, Yung, and Shackleton — are assigned through an annual House Sorting Ceremony in which new students try on the Dulwich Hat on the stage of the Alleyn Theatre, a ritual imported from the London founding school. Annual inspection visits by senior staff from Dulwich College London provide a further, formal link to the original institution.
The physical facilities built into the original campus were substantial from the start: a 50-metre Olympic-standard swimming pool, a 2,000 square-metre fully air-filtered triple gymnasium, a 500-seat theatre, blackbox theatre spaces, an orchestra room, an outdoor amphitheatre, a film studio with editing suite, robotics spaces, IT and science labs, and three libraries. All students swim weekly as part of the school programme.
Ownership Change
For most of its existence the school was operated by Education in Motion (EiM), the Singapore-headquartered group that ran the wider DCI network across China, Singapore and South Korea. In 2024, Hillhouse Investment Group, a prominent Asian private equity firm, acquired DCI's schools in Asia from EiM, completing a transaction that had been in discussion since at least mid-2023. The DCI network at that point comprised six international colleges in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Singapore and Seoul, alongside two international high schools in China and three sister Dehong schools.
Present Day
For 2025-26, the college's tenth academic year, Dr Mark Hardeman serves as Interim Head of College. The roll stands at approximately 1,400 students, from ages 2 to 18. The school holds CIS and WASC accreditation and is a FOBISIA member. Graduates sit IGCSE examinations in the middle years before progressing to the IB Diploma; the school reports that its graduates achieve IB score averages above the global mean by around eight points. An annual scholarship programme for the following academic year is advertised to prospective families each spring.