Singapore · History
From a blank site in Bukit Batok to 2,600 students in a decade
Dulwich College (Singapore) opened in August 2014 as the seventh school in the Dulwich College International network. It has grown into one of the largest British international schools in Southeast Asia.
In August 2012, Nick Magnus arrived in Singapore with one job: build a school. He had been charged with the building and then the opening of a brand new international school, and he had two years to do it. Dulwich College (Singapore) opened its state-of-the-art campus in August 2014 on a five-hectare site at 71 Bukit Batok West Avenue 8 in the west of the island.
Origins
The school traces its lineage to Edward Alleyn, the Elizabethan actor-entrepreneur who founded Dulwich College on 21 June 1619 with letters patent from King James I. The international network behind the Singapore campus came much later. In 2003, British-Singaporean couple Fraser White and Karen Yung were living in Shanghai, searching for a school for their children. Unable to find one that matched their expectations of academic rigour combined with a rich holistic curriculum, a chance meeting with the Head of Dulwich College in London planted the seed for a 100-year global partnership, Dulwich College International (DCI).
DCI was co-founded in 2003 by Fraser White and Karen Yung. In 2024, Hillhouse Investment Group acquired DCI's schools in Asia from Education in Motion (EiM). The deal was reported at approximately $600 million. The Singapore college was the seventh to join the Dulwich family of schools.
Growth and Campus
Magnus, who had previously served as Founding Head of Dulwich College Suzhou when it opened in 2007, led the Singapore school from its first day. The official opening ceremony took place on 17 April 2015, Founder's Day, with heads of all the Dulwich family of schools present, including Dr Joe Spence, Master of the College in London.
The campus expanded steadily. In August 2018, a Performing Arts Centre was completed, including a 742-seat theatre, a pipe organ that is the second largest in Singapore, two black box theatres, and suites of music and art rooms. Then, in November 2023, the Greenhouse opened: a seven-storey innovation hub containing a 400-seat multi-purpose auditorium, a STEAM workshop, a professional teaching kitchen, film and media suites, and three additional black box theatres. The campus now holds three libraries, a Performing Arts Centre with three theatres, three swimming pools, sports fields, gymnasiums, rooftop gardens, a forest school, a sports science lab, three dining rooms, and two coffee shops.
Magnus led the college for over a decade, earning an MBE along the way. He was succeeded as Head of College by David Ingram, who took up the post from August 2025.
Curriculum and Identity
The college operates as three schools: DUCKS, Junior School, and Senior School, catering for students aged 2 to 18. Students aged 2 to 7 are taught bilingually in English and Chinese, and daily Chinese classes continue for students from Years 3 to 8. In the senior years, students in the middle school follow a three-year programme leading to IGCSE or GCSE qualifications. At post-16, students choose from the IB Diploma Programme, the Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Levels as a specialist STEM pathway, or the Dulwich College (Singapore) High School Diploma.
Dulwich was the first international school in Singapore to introduce Forest School, accredited by the UK's Forest School Learning Initiative, into its DUCKS early years programme, pioneering real-world learning and problem-solving in a natural environment.
The school holds a full roster of accreditations. It holds four-year EduTrust accreditation running to 2028 and is fully accredited by CIS and WASC, with additional certifications including ISO 45001, ISO 9001, and BizSAFE STAR. It is also a COBIS-accredited school, and the IB authorised the Diploma Programme on 20 January 2017. The school is a member of FOBISIA, HMC, and IAPS.
Present Day
The college currently enrols 2,600 students from more than 50 nationalities. It sits on its original Bukit Batok campus and is led by David Ingram, appointed Head of College in August 2025. As reported by The Straits Times in late 2024, parents of Dulwich College students in Singapore were informed of the change of ownership from EiM to Hillhouse, completing a transaction that placed one of Singapore's largest British international schools under new investment backing while its day-to-day educational programme continued unchanged.