City-based YK Pao School tops Hurun rankings

Shanghai-based YK Pao School ranks top of a list international schools accepting Chinese passport holders on the Chinese mainland, according to Hurun Education, the education industry research platform of Hurun Report Inc.

It’s the fourth year such rankings have been produced. Unlike previous years when all schools were ranked in the Hurun Education Top 100, with YK Pao top twice, this year the list was split into “Hurun Education International Schools Accepting Chinese Passport Holders Top 80” and “Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only Top 20.”

YK Pao School is No. 1 on the first list, followed by Shenzhen College of International Education and Keystone Academy in Beijing, while Dulwich College Beijing leads the second list with International School of Beijing and Shanghai High School International Division taking second and third places.

The rankings are based on a peer-to-peer review. Between December 2020 and March 2021, Hurun Education surveyed 270 international education experts in China, asking them to recommend up to five schools from each of Eastern China, Southern China, Northern China and Western China that provided a good all-round education.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher, said the education quality of international schools on the Chinese mainland has been improving, attracting overseas Chinese families to send their children there and retaining children from local families with high net worth who had planned to emigrate.