Harrow School - a diluted global brand?

[Mrspepperpot1979]

Our DS has been offered a place at Harrow, which of course is wonderful – it’s a school with an extraordinary heritage. However, we're beginning to wonder whether Harrow, perhaps more than any other UK public school, has now evolved into something quite different from what made it so unique.

One concern is the sheer scale of Harrow’s international cohort - particularly the large number of pupils from China. While cultural diversity is something to be celebrated, it feels as though the balance may have shifted too far. When comparing Harrow with schools like Eton or Radley (both of which have made a point of avoiding overseas franchises), the contrast is quite stark.

Harrow has opened a significant number of international schools abroad over the last few years - notably in China – and continues to expand in this direction. While one can appreciate the commercial rationale, one can’t help but question what this says about the school’s strategic focus. Has the essence of what Harrow was – a quintessentially British boarding school experience – been changed for the worse or better as a result?

A number of the traditions certainly remain: the Harrow Songs, Bill, the distinctive dress, Long Ducker etc. But if the pupil body is so heavily international and the school’s global brand is now arguably its driving force, are families still getting the same experience that once made Harrow unique?

I’d really value hearing from others – whether you have current boys there, or considered it but chose differently. How does this international cohort impact the school culture, does it cause division? Through, for example, a lack of cultural reference points and different cultural sporting interests - i.e Rugby and cricket.

Do others share these concerns, or do you see this evolution as a positive step for a 21st-century institution?

Go visit and see for yourself how Chinese pupils impact rugby & cricket etc. Ask students on your tour. Many of those Chinese faces can be British citizens, and don’t there are also students from other countries. I hear those Asians are jolly good & keen cricketers.

Just visit the school, ask the questions.

Ask how enrollment of culturally white traditional students can’t fill Harrow because of Vat on fees ? Ask why are foreigners so rich now?

Thank you, although not hugely helpful. Of course we have visited a number of times already. You can't possibly go through the admissions process without doing so, and by meeting the HM and various other senior staff. Im not looking for flippent remarks, more for any thought out insight from any current Harrow parents that could comment on their own experiences on all of the above. Or non Harrow parents who may have DC in other schools where this may also have been considered.

By chance we watched the Harrow v Eton polo match at the weekend. My son was surprised to see Harrow only had one white kid on their team (2 Chinese and 1 middle east).

Well of course, you could say the international aspect of Harrow is another thing that's making it so unique.

What is it that attracted you in the first place? Do you think that's been compromised by the business expanding to the other side of the world?

And what is the "quintessentially British boarding school experience"? Why is it diluted by having foreigners experience it?

Isn't Harrow planning to offer more UK bursaries from profits from its overseas sites?

I suspect schools nearer to London and more famous like Harrow will be more attractive to international students. If you want something less international is it worth to look at schools further away from London and less accessible e.g. Ampleforth, Gordunstoun etc?

I think there's a distinct divide. Those parents that actively seek a high proportion of international students and those that don't. Our view is that a higher proportion of international students vs those from the UK (acknowledging the fact that those from the UK may also have an international heritage) does take a school down a certain path and may always cause an element of natural division between pupils, not necessarily intentionally, but simply through a lack of shared cultural influences and co curricular interests. A mass generalisation, but for example, the chinese contingent do often tend to be quite academia (particularly STEM) and music focused and tend to prioritise these areas, perhaps less so than other co curricular interests. Now this is wonderful that a pupil can share cultural differences and experiences, but my point is that Harrow dont seem to have the balance right and appear to have strategically targeted this co hort to raise their academic results, perhaps to the detriment of the essence of the school. One only has to look at the academic prizes on Speech Day to see that these are almost entirely won by Chinese students.

That's possible but does not seem to have changed the cultural mix to date.

Out son has gone to a school in the UK where as the white British he's in a minority. About 25-30% of his class is white British the rest mostly Indian with a small number of black and chinese kids. Mostly kids from the uk. Now I think it's great for him to get out of his rural white bubble and meet other children with different cultures, food and religions and it will put him in good stead for adulthood. However as said there is less interest in sport than you might expect which is what he really enjoys. There is good enthusiasm for cricket but not so for cross country and alot of the kids are just at the school to study and not interested in extra curricular activities.

But to be honest with the recent massive increase in school fees the number of UK families that are being squeezed out of private education is on the rise and these international families really value the kudos of these famous schools. The schools are businesses and it's an open market..

Yes, there does absolutely appear to be some truth in this. Radley appears to be the stand out alternative all boys boarding school for those seeking a more balanced mix between UK and international pupils.

Thank you. Harrow is perhaps not quite at the % mix that you have experienced but the points you raise are exactky what im referring to. Interestingly Harrow have said that (perhaps unsurprisingly) they have not really been impacted by VAT on school fees, so the UK vs International ratio does appear to be a strategic and deliberate stance.

Never been, probably shouldn't comment, but it's the one famous public school where I know a family who's kids attend. They have been really pleased and only ever praise Harrow.

Harrow, like all the successful public schools ( and other successful businesses) survives because it retains its core objective (to provide an elite education) while adapting to current market conditions. Since the UK middle classes (lawyers, doctors, small landowners) can no longer afford the fees they fill the places with the wealthy, and students from overseas.
They still need a core group of talented, highly motivated, clever, sporty children to provide the essence of what their customers are buying (access to top Universities, reflected glory from successful sports teams, musicians etc). They can recruit a lot of clever kids, musicians and fencers from overseas. They then offer attractive scholarships to clever British boys who fit the bill and buy in the elite rugby players etc from the academy sides.
None of this will turn a rich, not so clever, British boy into a Cambridge blue, (some parents only grasp this once the fees have been paid) but it will still deliver a self confident young man with social skills which can be turned on when needed.

Views from an OH (…perhaps slightly biased: as you probably know we’re a rather tribal lot!):

Given its North London location, Harrow has been more multicultural than many of its boarding peers for ages; in my day there was already a meaningful number of local Harrovians with Indian or Jewish backgrounds, not to mention contingents from the more traditional overseas markets such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria and South Africa.

Indeed during my five years there, the head boy one year was of Malaysian-Indian heritage and another year we had a head boy who had mixed British/Malaysian parentage. Being the 1980s, I doubt this was anything to do with PC/wokeness nonsense: it was just Harrow being Harrow.

Since then, the school has remained ahead of the game / gone further along the slippery slope (*delete as appropriate depending on your worldview), partly a reflection of its more metropolitan worldview and no doubt partly due to its proximity to overseas families’ London homes… there aren’t exactly many other boarding schools 20-odd minutes away from Zone 1 by Tube.

You’re correct in saying that the China contingent has grown since then – I notice more surnames with Qs, Xs and Zs – though I’m told that the largest overseas source is Hong Kong, not least with the number of Hong Kongers who have moved to the UK in recent times. I do know that the school is cognisant that the numbers of each non-British nationality should be managed to prevent the school being anything but British.

It's worth emphasising at this point that Harrow remains a very traditionally conservative and conformist school. It’s not a place where boys are necessarily encouraged to explore and develop their own identities to the same extent as elsewhere, or to ‘be yourself’ or whatever the phrase is. One’s primary identity is as a Harrovian – not one’s nationality, religion, or any of the more new-fangled identities that have mushroomed in recent years. I don’t know what they put in the water, but it does seem to work for the majority of us: I’ve had the pleasure of attending OH dinners in four different countries and they all have the same close-knit tribal feel.

Regardless, has the increasingly global nature of the boys changed some aspects of the school? Without being there in person it’s difficult to make a direct comparison, but what I can see from OH newsletters is that the school has become stronger academically than in the past. It’s not a Winchester or a Westminster (and never will be) but its Oxbridge entries are much higher than what it was in my year – there aren’t too many private schools that can say that in the current anti-private school pogrom! – and unusually for a UK school I hear that the Ivy League hit rate in some recent years has been almost on par with Oxbridge.

Have the higher academic standards gone hand-in-hand with a supposed “lack of cultural reference points and different sporting cultural interests ie. rugby and cricket”? From the tone of your statements, you’ve already decided to form your views subjectively. Fair enough, but for the record in cricket we’ve won the Lord’s match for the fourth year in succession; in rugby we are the 2025 national schools champions, having successfully defended our title from last year. Indeed the current England (and Lions) captain Maro Itoje is an OH; as English as English can be unless you’re of the Tommy Robinson persuasion.

So, returning to your original question: whether or not Harrow is the right school for your DS very much depends on what you’re looking for – indeed what sort of future world you think you need to to prepare him for. Harrow – perhaps reflective of London as a whole – is very much outward-looking “Global Britain”. It’s a bit like Wimbledon, or The City, or the English Premier League – inextricably English/British, yet indelibly international at the same time – but perhaps not to everyone’s taste.

If you’re looking for a school that’s more “Home Counties Britain” – more of the “is there honey still for tea?” ilk – then I’d say it’s not the sort of place for you or your son.

It might surprise you to know that Harrow is very close to Winchester at A level. Westminster is another story as it’s more academically selective.

Harrow’s outgoing Upper Sixth have achieved outstanding A-level results. Almost a third of all grades were graded at A, with over two thirds of the grades at either A or A. Significantly, over 90% of all of the grades this year were graded A*-B.

Winchester’s results at A level 2024 were
90% A/ B and 69% A /A . They don’t give the breakdown of A * as Harrow do but I believe they were lower than Harrow’s.

Thank you for your comments. This is very helpful and a great insight.

Just to pick up on the sports point. Harrow is certainly successful in Rugby, cricket (and sports generally) at 1st team level, perhaps partly supported by scholarship talent parachuted in, but does though seem to struggle more in fixtures beyond the first team, so the success is not as widely spread.:
https://www.schoolssports.com/school/webapp/sports.aspx?id=132

Harrow is an international brand with plenty of overseas schools (mainly Asia but also now in the USA). But the international franchise operation does not mean Harrow UK is somehow diluted. Kids from the franchises are not pupils in the UK. If anything the franchise model will reinforce the overall brand strength come 10-20 years from now when all the ex-UK students are in jobs and grown up. This is no different to Dulwich, Downe House, Wycombe Abbey, Benenden, Rugby, etc (all of whom operate franchises).

That said, I have heard that whilst Harrow UK is not diluted from an objective perspective they have picked up on the subjective sentiment/ concern that you expressed. No one wants to have a [mis]perception get out of hand. As a result, starting a couple of years ago Harrow started to become slightly more selective (more Home Counties) in its entry criteria. Not a major move, just a small change of the dial. That may give comfort to you?

It is a great school. It is after all “a very British school” (see YouTube for an explanation). If it is a “British” in all sense of the word education you want then Harrow will provide that.

just also to add one more point, which is that the OP’s concern is completely understood in that I am not being dismissive of those worries. Rather, what I am trying to say is that when it comes to Harrow there is no need to worry. If this was a conversation about Roedean a few years ago then I would both understand the OP’s worries and say that there is good reason to worry. But in the case of Harrow there is really no need to worry.

Interested to know - at what proportion of students do people think the culture and nature of the schools are changed? ie is it 10% or 25% or 40% of students being ethnic Asian? At what point do schools start getting worried?

From my limited understanding, I think it is less about the school getting worried and it is more about the parents and prospective parents getting worried. This leads to a compounding effect and gets stuck in a vicious circle.

What I have heard is that Roedean is the example of this. In particular, around the term of the century Roedean decided to improve its academic scores by letting in a larger proportion of students from Asia, in particular China.

The academic results of the school did go up. But, right or wrongly, British parents felt that the school was “too Chinese” and they started sending their daughters elsewhere. From the perspective of the Chinese parents, this was a very unappealing development because there are a plenty of very good schools in China and the reason why those parents were spending all this money, time and effort into sending their children to Roedean was so that their girls could benefit from a British education. If the numbers of Brits was droppig then there’s no point sending the girls to that school, so thought the Chinese parents. As a result Roedean suffered from an exodus.

Now, to be clear, I’m not bashing Roedean as it is today. I’ve been to the school and I think it is fantastic. Also, I think it has a very positive, multicultural but British, kind and understanding environment for girls of British and non-British background. Roedean today is very British (with a healthy dose of international). Roedean today is excellent. My point is about what happened to that school 20 or 30 years ago, not today.

Nonetheless, I think other schools look at that Roedea. experience and they think that that is what they want to avoid. So the issue was really not what worries the school but rather what the school wants to avoid what worries parents.

In sum, there is no specific proportion or percentage concern but rather there is a perception concern.

Anyway, when it comes to Harrow the concern is misplaced.

Why do you say that when it comes to Harrow the concern is misplaced? What evidence is there to the contrary? The situation that you have described occurred with Rodean is exactly what appears to be happening with Harrow and all evidence is that they haven't addressed it. Currently we know of one family whose (UK) DS joined Harrow in Sept 24 and subsequently withdrew them only a few months later specifically for this reason. Of the 14 year 9 boys that joined at the same time, 8 were Chinese, 4 were African and
2 were from UK. That is the current reality. Generic nformation on the topic from Harrow is that the ratio between UK and international pupils is 80/20. This cannot be the case. We also know of 2 other UK families from our prep whose DS are offer holders and who have turned down the offers as a result of this concern. The school will likely never know this, as the parents are perhaps less likely to give this level of detail when rejecting the offers but that is happening currently. Your Rodean example perfectly highlights why some UK parent's are becoming put off by Harrow, as whilst its great that Chinese pupils get to experience a UK boarding school education, the fact/irony that they themselves then started to pull their own DS out (because it was becoming less UK) is the very essence of why UK parents also feel the same.

To reiterate, I'm not suggesting that having a cultural mix of pupils from across the world isn't anything other than a positive thing, it's simply that Harrow dont appear to be getting the balance right and their stated 80/20 ratios dont appear to be the reality.

My friend’s son went to Harrow & left after GCSEs. He is half American & was put in a boarding house with international students rather than British. He went to a day school for 6th form and his younger brother did too. I think they felt there were international students, legacy students (those whose family had always gone to Harrow) and misfits. All the private/public schools pass students who have issues around between them, the boys who are academic but do drugs, drink, break the rules.

Would it also worry you OP if the student intake was largely white but from a lower socioeconomic class (such as working class, new money)? I’m interested in understanding your parameters on who and what skew a British education/experience.