Rugby School Opens Its First Vietnam Campus in Hanoi This September

Hanoi is set to gain its newest British-brand international school in September 2026, when Rugby School Hanoi opens with an initial pre-prep cohort in Ciputra, the established gated residential community near the city's West Lake. According to Tes, Rugby School Global is developing the campus in partnership with Khai Sang Corporation, a Vietnamese education investor led by Tuyen Nguyen, who currently operates five schools in Vietnam.

The 2026 to 2027 intake covers Early Years 1 through Year 2, with prep and senior school provision following from September 2027. Dr Neil Hampton, chief executive of Rugby School Global, said the school aimed to "cultivate young people of character, integrity and compassion, preparing them not only for academic distinction but for lives of meaning, responsibility and service in Vietnam and the wider world."

Rugby's growing international network

The Hanoi campus becomes the ninth school in Rugby School Group, joining established campuses in Thailand, Japan, Nigeria, and Dubai alongside three UK preparatory schools. The group's "Whole Person Whole Point" philosophy places intellectual development, character formation, and co-curricular breadth at equal weight, with sport, music, and the performing arts prominent in the school day. The Rugby brand has been operating internationally for over a decade, having opened in Thailand first, then expanding across Asia and beyond.

Vietnam's international school sector has grown sharply. ISC Research figures show the number of international schools in the country rose 24 per cent between 2020 and the present, from 292 to 362 institutions, while teacher employment in the sector grew from roughly 11,000 to more than 15,000. A wave of British independent schools has moved to capitalise on that growth in 2026: Uppingham opened a campus in Hung Yen province this month, and King's College School is building a facility in Ho Chi Minh City for a 2027 launch.

The Ciputra advantage

The location inside Ciputra Hanoi, a long-established compound on the city's north-western edge, gives Rugby a built-in target market. Ciputra houses a significant share of Hanoi's upper-income Vietnamese families alongside a substantial diplomatic and corporate expatriate community. That combination means the school is unlikely to face an enrollment cold-start problem in its early years, provided its fee positioning is competitive with the existing British-curriculum schools in the city, notably British International School Hanoi and the United Nations International School of Hanoi.

No published fee schedule has been released for the inaugural year. Families have been directed to contact the school at [email protected] for application details. For Rugby School Group, the Vietnam entry is part of a broader push into Asian markets where demand for British-curriculum provision is growing faster than established schools can supply it, and where local education investors with site access and regulatory experience represent a faster route to market than greenfield development.