HURUN EDUCATION RELEASES HURUN EDUCATION TOP INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN CHINA 2025

SHANGHAI LED WITH 40 SCHOOLS, FOLLOWED BY BEIJING WITH 35,

GUANGZHOU 13, SUZHOU 11 AND SHENZHEN 10

SHANGHAI-BASED YK PAO SCHOOL TOPS HURUN EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN CHINA FOR SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR, FOLLOWED BY SHENZHEN COLLEGE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND SHANGHAI PINGHE SCHOOL

BEIJING’S KEYSTONE ACADEMY, SHANGHAI WORLD FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACADEMY INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT, SDSZ INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT, ULINK COLLEGE OF SHANGHAI, UWC CHANGSHU CHINA, BEIJING NATIONAL DAY SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT AND GUANGDONG COUNTRY GARDEN SCHOOL ROUND OUT TOP 10

ISB TOP INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OPEN TO NON-CHINESE PASSPORT HOLDERS ONLY, FOR THIRD TIME SINCE 2017

74% OFFER IB COURSES CERTIFIED BY IBO, 63% OFFER AP COURSES CERTIFIED BY COLLEGE BOARD, AND 60% OFFER IGCSE/A-LEVEL COURSES CERTIFIED BY CIE

55% OFFER MULTIPLE INTERNATIONAL CURRICULUMS, 45% FOCUS ON A SINGLE CURRICULUM SYSTEM

(15 July 2025, Shanghai) Hurun Education, the education platform of Hurun Inc., today released the Hurun Education Top International Schools in China 2025, a ranking of the best-regarded international schools in China. The ranking includes the Hurun Education International Schools in China Top 100 and the Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only Top 30. This is the seventh year of the ranking.

The number of Chinese studying abroad is close to 900,000 students, with over 280,000 in the USA, 170,000 in Australia, 160,000 in the UK, 100,000 in Canada, and more than 100,000 in Southeast Asia, mostly Singapore. Nearly two-thirds of them are in graduate or doctoral programs, 30% are in undergraduate programs, and 5% are at highschools.

As of January 2025, the total number of accredited international schools in the Chinese mainland were 972, of which 157 were open to non-Chinese passport holders only and 555 were private schools.

Hurun Education’s list is primarily based on a peer review. The peer review made up 80% of the weighting, down from 90% last year. Graduate university destinations and co-curricular activities made up 20% of the weighting, up from 10% last year.

The peer review was based on a survey of 317 senior international education experts from across China, asking them one open question: “Which schools do you believe provide a good overall education and prepare students well to study overseas?”

78% of respondents were from international schools, and 22% were from overseas studies agencies and education media. 63% of respondents came from schools on the list last year, of which 72 were from the Hurun Education Top International Schools in China, and 23 from the Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only, with each school allowed to provide up to two respondents.

The schools listed in the Hurun Education International Schools in China Top 100 come from 23 cities. They were set up 15 years ago on average and today have an average of 900 students per school.

The schools listed in the Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only Top 30 come from 12 cities. Set up 24 years ago on average, the total number of students were 40,000, with an average of 1,100 per school.

The Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun, Rupert Hoogewerf, said:

“The Hurun Education International Schools in China is mainly drawn on a vote by their peers, similar to the way the Ballon d’Or, football’s most prestigious award, is compiled. Just over 300 international schools experts in China took part in this year’s voting, led by heads and senior teachers from two thirds of the schools on last year’s list, making the Hurun Education list the most prestigious and complete list of its kind in China today.”

“The Hurun Education list is targeted at parents who are thinking of giving their children an international education, teachers, who are looking to find a job in a top international school in China, and university admission officers, who want to know more about where their applicants are coming from.”

“What is the best age to send a child to study overseas? The schools on the Hurun Education list are considered by their peers to be the best in the country, meaning there is many options to keep your child close by, good for their cultural self-confidence and family values.” 

“Shanghai and Beijing have the most international schools, reflecting also which cities are the most international within mainland China. Guangzhou, Suzhou and Shenzhen follow, whilst we can expect more international schools to come from Hangzhou, the city in the spotlight recently for its tech startups like DeepSeek.”

“Although 55% of the schools on the list offer two to three major curriculum systems, a small proportion of schools only offer a single curriculum system, mainly A-Level and AP courses, and a small but growing number of IB courses.”

“It has been another tough year for international schools in China. Many families have less spending money than before, meaning that many Chinese families are choosing to extend their children’s education within the state school system, rather than going to more expensive international schools. Another factor is the recent exodus of non-Chinese families from China, further reducing the pool from which international schools have been recruiting from.”

“HK and Singapore are growing in popularity for Chinese students to go to university, partly because of their university performances in the global rankings. The US is down, because of the challenges of getting a student visa, whilst the US and UK are both relatively-speaking quite expensive.”

“With many families feeling the pinch, international schools are having to justify being much more expensive than state schools. Traditionally, international schools have the advantage of smaller class sizes and more co-curricular activities.”

“The impact of AI has become a hot topic. Schools and parents are concerned about how to use AI appropriately and avoid AI weakening students' independent thinking ability. One of the most significant impacts is the accelerated development of the STEAM education concept, which incorporates ‘Art’ into the original STEM system. This change focuses on cultivating students' creative thinking and the ability to think from first principles. Ultimately, schools must provide a future-oriented education to help children prepare for prosperity and achievement in the 2050s, which is an extremely demanding task.”

“There is a small but growing trend of parents thinking of sending their children to study at undergrad level within China, on the ‘3+1’ or ‘2+2’ programs, ie three years in China and one year abroad, or two years in China and two years abroad.  This is significantly cheaper, allowing for more money to be spent on an international masters.”

“Hurun Education has been actively engaged with international education in China for the past decade or more. In the last month, Hurun Education released its third annual Hurun Education Global Highschools, a ranking of the world’s best-performing non-state schools in the world, put out in association with HSBC. Hurun Education and HSBC followed this with three events in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou for 2000 parents, with twelve heads, including heads of five of the 16 schools in China that made the 2025 HSBC Hurun Education Global High School Ranking.”

This is a brief summary of the Chinese-language press release. For the full press release in Chinese, please see www.hurun.net.

Hurun Education International Schools in China Top 10

Hurun Education International Schools in China 2025 — Independent International Schools Top 10

Hurun Education International Schools in China 2025 — International Departments of Public Schools Top 10

Hurun Education International Schools 2025 in Shanghai

Hurun Education International Schools 2025 in Beijing

Hurun Education International Schools 2025 in Guangzhou

Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only Top 10

Geographic Distribution

Hurun Education International Schools in China Top 100

Hurun Education International Schools Open to Non-Chinese Passport Holders Only Top 30

About Hurun Education

Hurun Education is the education platform of Hurun Inc. Hurun Education started out in 2008, with the launch of the Best of British Education, the first of the Hurun Schools Guide Series, targeting Chinese parents who were thinking of sending their children to study abroad.  The series expanded to cover the US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as the Best of Cultural and Creative Arts.

Hurun Education is best known for putting out definitive rankings. Its flagships are the Hurun Education Global Highschools List, a ranking of the world’s best independent highschools, put out every year since June 2023 in association with HSBC bank, and the Hurun Education China International Schools, first published in 2017.

Other lists include a universities ranking, based on the alumni that produce the most individuals from the Hurun Rich List, as well as the most successful education entrepreneurs and donors to the education sector.

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai

Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research and media group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2024, mainly in China and India, and recently expanding to the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Best-known for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series focus on young businesses and entrepreneurs, through the Hurun Unicorns Index, two Hurun Future Unicorns indices, the Hurun U^th series and the Hurun Pioneers series.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest list compiler for start-ups, ranking over 3000 start-ups across the world through its annual Hurun Global Unicorns Index (startups with a valuation of US$1bn+), and two Hurun Future Unicorn Indexes: Gazelles, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years.

The Hurun Pioneering Young Startups and Entrepreneurs series focuses on startups set up within the last ten years and founders aged 45 or under.

The Hurun U^th series includes the Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of each generation of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth US$1m, US$10m, US$50m and US$100m respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun 500 series, ranking the most valuable companies in the world, China and India, the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists and the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions and regional governments.

Hurun hosts high-profile events across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

For further information, see www.hurun.net.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Hurun Report

Porsha Pan

Tel: +86-21-50105808*601

Mobile: +86-139 1838 7446

Email: porsha.pan@hurun.net