Uppingham Opens Its First Asian Campus in Vietnam This Month

Uppingham School, one of England's oldest independent boarding schools, is opening its first campus in Asia this August at the Ecopark township in Hung Yen Province, roughly 30 kilometres south-east of Hanoi. The new school has been developed in partnership with Viet Capital Education, the Ecopark property group, and education advisory firm 20in20 Partners, according to VnExpress International.

The founding intake is intentionally modest. Current enrolment figures show around 20 pupils representing five nationalities, with class sizes capped at 24. The 4.7-hectare campus has been designed to eventually accommodate up to 2,000 students from nursery through to sixth form, building its cohort year by year. The curriculum follows the UK national framework, with iGCSE and A Level pathways for senior students. English is the medium of instruction, with EAL support available, and a school bus connects the site to Hanoi.

A name with a long history

Founded in 1584 in Rutland, Uppingham is closely associated with English boarding culture and particularly with the arts, sport, and pastoral tradition that British independent schools export alongside their curriculum. Headmaster Dr Richard Maloney has spoken publicly about bringing Uppingham's "heritage of academic and personal development" to Vietnam. That involvement appears to go beyond branding: the Founding Headmistress represented the school at the Heads' and Masters' Conference earlier this year, and the campus was designed by UK architectural practice Broadway Malyan.

The school's facilities include a sports complex, performing arts centre, football pitch, high-tech laboratories, and a modern library. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony in August 2025, and the partners committed at the time to having the buildings ready within twelve months.

A market filling up fast

Uppingham enters a northern Vietnam market that has seen several British school brands arrive in quick succession. Rugby School is preparing to open a Hanoi campus in September. Ardingly College launched its Lao Cai campus earlier this year. Fairmont International School opened in Hanoi in July. Each is competing for the same pool of internationally-minded families, many of them tied to the surge of manufacturing and professional investment that has reshaped Hung Yen and the wider Hanoi region.

Annual fees for Uppingham Hung Yen have not been publicly disclosed. British-curriculum day schools operating at the iGCSE tier in Vietnam typically charge between USD 15,000 and USD 22,000 per year for day pupils, though schools carrying strong UK independent school heritage tend to price at the upper end or beyond. How Uppingham positions its fees, and how quickly it can build name recognition in a market where Rugby, Ardingly, and others already have a head start, will be among the more closely watched tests of its early years in Asia.