Chinese investors are buying up British private schools

Investors from China have started to buy up British private schools as an increasing number of rich Chinese want their children to be educated in the UK, the Daily Mail reported.

In a recent case, Chase Grammar School, one of Britain's top 100 private schools, was bought by Achieve Education, a Chinese-owned company. The Staffordshire-based school, which charges up to ￡11,000 ($16,876) a year in day fees and as much as ￡36,600 for boarding fees, has 300 pupils and 40 of them are from China.

"The demand in China is there," Zhou Tong, a director of Chase Grammar said, emphasizing that Chinese students are now choosing to go to both a secondary school and university in Britain, according to Daily Mail.

International schools at home can no longer meet the demands of rising wealthy families in China and some other Asian countries, who hope to see their children grow and be educated in an all-English and creativity-encouraged environment.

Private schools in the UK are shifting more attention to woo international students, which could bring them substantial revenue.

Chase Grammar school introduced a special program with extra support for Chinese students and established an office in Shanghai to facilitate Chinese parents' communication with the school.

There are 6,344 Chinese students now studying in Britain's private primary and middle schools, accounting for 14 percent of all international students, the largest share among all countries.

A safe financial investment appears to be the motivation for the acquisition of Britain's private schools, with many of the schools welcoming the opportunity for a much-needed injection of cash, the Daily Mail commented.

"There's a terrific amount of interest from Chinese, Singaporeans, Filipinos, Indians, Hong Kong and Pakistan," said Peers Carter, founder of the School Transfer Company, according to the report.

He suggested that they were attracted to the financial opportunities of investing in British education. "They have discovered that education is a very good long-term investment."