Shanghai · History
Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong: China's first British independent school turns 23
Founded in Pudong in 2003 with 26 kindergartners and inaugurated by Tony Blair, Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong grew from a single campus into the founding school of a continent-wide network.
British lawyer Fraser White and his wife Karen Yung moved to Shanghai in the early 2000s with three young children and could not find the school they wanted. The city's international school market lacked the ambitious academic programme, broad co-curricular offer, and British educational traditions they were looking for. A meeting with Graham Able, then Master of Dulwich College in London, changed that. The two families saw an opportunity, and in 2002 White and Yung secured what the school calls a World Charter with Dulwich College London, setting the legal and educational framework for an international offshoot.
The deal was underwritten at the highest level. Under the leadership of Eddie George, then Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Governors at Dulwich College London, the governing body agreed to a 100-year global partnership with White and Yung. The resulting venture, later formalised as Dulwich College International, would become, as the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai records, the first independent British school to open in China.
Origins
The college opened its gates in August 2003 in the Jinqiao area of Pudong, a leafy expatriate district east of the Huangpu. The formal inauguration came on 22 July 2003, performed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Dr Zhang En Di, Vice Mayor of the Shanghai Pudong New District. Colin Niven was the school's first Head of College. The campus opened with 26 kindergarten students. Several founding staff members remain with the college today.
The parent institution, Dulwich College, traces its own origins to 1619, when Elizabethan actor-entrepreneur Edward Alleyn endowed what he called 'Alleyn's College of God's Gift' on his Dulwich estate. That heritage travelled with the Shanghai franchise: uniforms, house system, and annual inspection by the Deputy Master (External) from Dulwich College London, who visits each year to verify standards are upheld.
Growth
From 26 students in 2003 the roll grew steadily. The Junior School building was formally opened in 2007, attended by HM Consul-General Shanghai Carma Elliott OBE and Vice Mayor Zhang En Di. A Science Block followed in 2018, the most recent major facility addition to the Jinqiao campus. By the school's 20th anniversary in the 2023/24 academic year, enrolment had reached more than 1,600 students from over 40 nationalities, aged 2 to 18.
In 2016 the organisation opened a second Shanghai campus, Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi, in the Minhang District on the western bank of the river. The two campuses now share a bus network of more than 50 lines covering most of the city. Ownership of the school changed hands in 2024 when Hillhouse Investment Group acquired the Dulwich College International schools in Asia from Education in Motion, the British company that had operated the network since its founding.
The 20th anniversary year was marked with a series of events including a Birthday Bash on 4 September 2023 at which founders White and Yung gave opening addresses and presented awards to 14 founding staff still working at the college. A Gala Ball at the Peninsula Hotel and a Founder's Day that ran for six consecutive hours of performances followed over the 2023/24 academic year.
Curriculum and Identity
The curriculum follows the English National Curriculum from Year 1 through Year 9. The early years section, known as DUCKS (Toddler to Year 2), operates on the UK Early Years Foundation Stage with a dual-language Mandarin and English immersion pathway from the start. Students sit IGCSE examinations from Year 10, and the senior school offers the IB Diploma Programme. The IB was authorised in December 2006. In the 2024 cohort the school achieved an average IB score of 37.5, the highest in China that year and well above the global average of 30.3, a record described as the third consecutive year the school had led China in IB performance.
Mandarin is taught across multiple pathways, native, second-language, and foreign-language, from early years through to IGCSE and IB. The campus on Lan An Road in Jinqiao is structured around three schools sharing a common facility set: a 750-seat professional theatre, a 25-metre six-lane FINA swimming pool, two gymnasiums, a dance studio, a recording studio, science laboratories, and a 14,000 square metre grass lawn.
Accreditation
The school holds accreditation from the Council of International Schools (CIS), re-accredited most recently in June 2025, and from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). In February 2025 it received accreditation from The Heads' Conference (HMC), placing it alongside schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, and Westminster in the UK's leading headteachers' association. The college is also an IBO World School and a certified test centre for ABRSM music and LAMDA drama examinations. The Beijing and Shanghai Dulwich campuses serve as audition centres for Berklee College of Music.
Present Day
The college sits at 266 Lan An Road, Jinqiao, Pudong, with a separate DUCKS building nearby at 425 Lan An Road. It educates over 1,600 students from more than 40 nationalities, running from Toddler through Year 13. Post-16 students sit the IB Diploma. University destinations for recent cohorts include Imperial College London, Cambridge, NYU, and the University of Toronto; 91 percent of one recent cohort received offers from institutions in the QS World University Rankings top 100. Head of College during the 20th anniversary year was Garry Russell. The college belongs to FOBISIA and ACAMIS and competes across the Dulwich network in events including the Dulwich Olympiad and the annual Festival of Music.