Student nationality

[gerger]

Hi

I am filling the registration form and consider which nationality, canadian or chinese will be the preference of boarding schools to select students. Any opinion?

Why should it make any difference? Children are not selected as a result of their nationality. If the child has leave to stay in the country, then either would suffice.

If your child has duel nationality then i would put both down. I don't think the school is using as a selection criteria.

They won't select by nationality, but will check (or will want you to check and provide proof) of immigration permission to study in UK.

So list the one that will have the correct visa (add others if you wish to give a more rounded picture of your DC, but this is an admin not a selection question).

I agree you should put down dual Can/Chinese if that is what your DC is.

The immigration status is irrelevant as most UK boarding schools themselves sponsor the visa. So if your child is offered a place at school A, school A will send you a letter confirming this and that will allow the correct visa to be issued.

On a general point, I think boarding schools do select on nationality inter alia. They want to maintain a balance between UK and non UK students, because the overseas parents are paying for the British experience and that involves mixing with British students. They can access international schools nearer home. International parents are happy for a boarding house to include a mix of overseas nationalities, but they usually want to avoid a school which is dominated either by children from their home country or by one overseas group. Part of the reason they are sending the child to Britain is to further develop their English language schools so they do not want them speaking their home language the whole time or sitting in a boarding house where everyone is speaking German for example. As a result, successful, over subscribed boarding schools cap the number of foreign students and apply a further cap on particular nationalities. This is much more likely to effect students from China, Russia, Germany, Spain etc which are big markets for UK schools than it is Canadians, because not many Canadians choose UK boarding.

Would add though that if you are Chinese from China and your DC just happens to have a Canadian passport, admissions officers in over subscribed schools will treat you as Chinese not Canadian. And vice versa.

I hate to say this but there is one very well known girls' boarding school which for many years was felt by British parents to have too many Chinese pupils so they didn't choose the school but went elsewhere. That is now being redressed by offering pretty good scholarships to English girls. They are not refusing Chinese pupils but they want to get a more balanced school again so are reducing the number of Chinese pupils offered places.

I would put down both nationalities. I would also probably check out the nationalities in the school at the moment.