Twenty-six Beijing institutions led a list of China’s Top 100 international schools released yesterday by Hurun Education, with Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) gaining pole position as the top-ranked school in Beijing and the second nationwide.

Hurun, known for its China “rich lists”, bases its methodology on peer-to-peer reviews. During the second half of 2018, Hurun researchers polled 330 experts: half were school principals or senior teachers, and the rest were made up of investors, overseas study agents, training centers, and government education departments.

Each respondent was asked to recommend up to five schools from each of the greater Beijing area (Beijing and Tianjin), the greater Shanghai area (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang) and the Rest of China. Schools were then ranked on an index of 0-100.

While fault could be found in the rigor of the ranking methodology (a single question on “pick five schools” in each of three regions), the rankings are a good indication of at least the word-on-the-street reputations of the schools among an informed populace.

The top-ranked international school in the country was Shanghai High School International Division, an international division of a Chinese public high school. Coming in second was Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), followed by Shanghai’s YK Pao School, International School of Beijing (ISB), and the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy.

Rounding out the top 5 in Beijing after Dulwich and ISB were SDSZ (Beijing Normal University) International Department, the High School Affiliated to Renmin University, and Keystone Academy.

Beijing had 26 schools on the list, up five from last year, while Shanghai had 23, down 3. Other top cities include Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Suzhou.

Schools in the Top 50 were given numerical ranks, while those from 51-100 were simply listed as “Top 100”.

Beijing Schools on the move include Beijing 21st Century International School, which ranked 8th in Beijing and 20th overall, making the leap from a previous China-wide ranking between 51 and 100.

Beijing City International School (BCIS) made a similar leap from the second half of the China-wide list to rank 10th in Beijing and 24th overall.

Beijing schools making their debut in the top 100 include Tsinghua International School (14th in Beijing, 29th overall), and British School of Beijing, Shunyi (16th in Beijing and 35th overall).

The Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Experiment School, Beijing Kaiwen Academy, Beanstalk International Bilingual School (BIBS), Limai Chinese American (International) School, and the Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada also made their debuts in the Top 100.

Fifty-four percent of the China schools in this ranking are private international schools, up from 47% last year, followed by 26% international divisions of Chinese public schools.

Other information covered in the report includes the average tuition increase at Chinese international schools, rising from RMB 100,000 to 150,000 for international departments of Chinese public schools, and from RMB 250,000 to 300,000 for international schools open to non-Chinese passport holders only.

Also, the percentage of these schools that admit Chinese passport holders rose from 70% to 80% over the past year.

Five Beijing schools also dominated a short ranking of the top 10 extracurricular programs at schools across China that was an additional feature of the report. Those on the unranked list from Beijing were the Beijing National Day School International Department, Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), International School of Beijing (ISB), Keystone Academy, and Western Academy of Beijing (WAB).

Hurun, known for its China “rich lists”, bases its methodology on peer-to-peer reviews. During the second half of 2018, Hurun researchers polled 330 experts: half were school principals or senior teachers, and the rest were made up of investors, overseas study agents, training centers, and government education departments.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB, hurun.net