Shanghai · History
From 23 Students to 1,600: Dulwich Pudong's Two-Decade Rise
Founded in 2003 by two parents who could not find the school they wanted, Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong became the first British independent school in China and the seed of an international network.
In 2002, British lawyer Fraser White and his wife Karen Yung were living in Shanghai with three young children and no school they considered good enough. Their search for an ambitious, broad education, one that combined rigorous academics with serious co-curricular provision, kept coming up short. A chance meeting with Graham Able, then Master of Dulwich College London, changed everything.
White and Yung secured what the school calls a World Charter with Dulwich College London in 2002, and the following year they opened the first campus. On 22 July 2003, Dulwich College Shanghai was formally inaugurated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Vice Mayor of the Shanghai Pudong New District, Dr Zhang En Di. It opened with 23 students in the Jinqiao area of Pudong, and Colin Niven became its first Head of College.
The Dulwich London Governors backed the venture under the then Governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George, who also chaired the Governors. The arrangement gave White and Karen Yung a 100-year global partnership with the London school, making Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong the founding institution of what would eventually become the Dulwich College International family, and, as the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai has noted, the first independent British school to open in China.
Growth
The school grew quickly. By 2007, the first cohort of students received IGCSE results, and that year also saw the official opening of a dedicated Junior School building, attended by HM Consul-General Shanghai and the Vice Mayor of Pudong. The IB Diploma Programme received IBO authorisation on 5 December 2006, giving the college its full K-to-18 academic pathway.
Facilities expanded in step with enrolment. A dedicated DUCKS early years site opened on Lan An Road, a short walk from the main campus at 266 Lan An Road. The Science Block, the most recent major facility addition, opened in 2018. By that point the college had grown from a school of two dozen pupils into one of the most prominent international schools in China.
In 2016, the college welcomed a sister campus, Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi, in the Minhang district of Puxi, extending the college's reach across the city. From August 2026, the two campuses are uniting under a single institution, Dulwich College Shanghai, with one Head of College overseeing both sites. The Puxi campus will serve Toddler through Year 9; Years 10 to 13 will be taught at Pudong in a phased transition completing in 2027.
At group level, Education in Motion (EiM), the British company that operated the Dulwich schools in Asia, received new ownership in 2024 when Hillhouse Investment Group acquired the Dulwich College International schools in Asia from EiM. The network White and Yung started in Pudong had by then grown to 13 schools in five countries, with more than 3,000 employees.
Curriculum and Accreditation
The college follows the English National Curriculum through the Junior School, transitions students through IGCSE in Years 10 and 11, and offers the IB Diploma in Years 12 and 13. Mandarin is taught across all year groups, with multiple pathways: native, second-language, and foreign-language routes, all the way through to IGCSE and IB. The DUCKS early years programme is built on the UK Early Years Foundation Stage with a dual-language English-Mandarin approach.
Accreditation is extensive. The college holds CIS (Council of International Schools) status, most recently re-accredited in June 2025, alongside IBO World School authorisation and WASC accreditation. In February 2025 it was also accredited by The Heads' Conference (HMC), placing it alongside schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, and Malvern in a network founded in 1869. The Deputy Master (External) from Dulwich College London conducts an annual inspection to ensure alignment with the founding school's standards.
The college is a certified examination centre for IB, ACT, pre-ACT, PSAT, and SAT, as well as ABRSM music and LAMDA drama examinations. Its campus facilities include a 750-seat professional theatre, black box studio, recording studio, a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, science laboratories, design technology workshops, and dedicated early years outdoor spaces.
Present Day
The college now educates more than 1,600 students aged 2 to 18, drawn from over 40 nationalities, on its Jinqiao campus. Garry Russell serves as Head of College. In the 2024 IB examinations, students achieved an average score of 37.5, the highest in China and well above the global average of 30.3; the college has led China in IB performance for at least three consecutive years. Fourteen founding staff members were still with the college when it marked its 20th anniversary in 2023. White and Yung's own children, who first prompted the school's creation, went on to take places at Oxford and leading universities in the United States.