Ardingly College Vietnam Opens Admissions Offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
The British boarding school in Lào Cai is entering a second development phase, opening urban outposts in Vietnam's two largest cities to build its pipeline with families considering the residential model.
Ardingly College Vietnam opened admissions offices in Hanoi's Tây Hồ Tây district and Ho Chi Minh City's Phú Mỹ Hưng area on October 10, as Vietnam News reported, as the school begins a second phase of campus development with an estimated investment of VNĐ200 to 250 billion (around USD 8 to 9 million).
The school carries the brand of Ardingly College, a nearly 170-year-old independent boarding school in West Sussex. Its Vietnam campus is built on a site in Lào Cai, a mountain province close to the Chinese border in the north of the country, designed to bring the British residential schooling model to Vietnamese and international families.
An urban presence for a remote campus
The new offices function as information hubs rather than satellite campuses. Families visiting either location can view displays, photographs and 360-degree virtual tours of the residential site, and speak with admissions staff about academic programmes and boarding life. The approach is designed to reduce the friction of asking prospective families to travel to Lào Cai before committing to an application.
The strategy mirrors the challenge facing all three prominent British boarding brands now operating in Vietnam. Rugby School's Hanoi campus opened in September and Uppingham's Hung Yen site launched in August. All three are set back from the urban demand pools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and all three are now investing in a visible city presence to build their admissions pipeline.
The Ho Chi Minh City signal
The southern office in Phú Mỹ Hưng is the more telling of the two openings. That district is Ho Chi Minh City's most established cluster of expatriate and affluent local families, anchored by international schools, premium residential compounds and international retail. An admissions outpost there signals that Ardingly is not positioning itself as a product for northern Vietnam families alone but is making a direct pitch to the southern households with the means and appetite for full boarding.
No timeline for completing the second campus development phase has been announced. The school is accepting applications for the 2027-28 academic year from both admissions locations.