East of Eton

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What's in a name? This time around, it's the educators and not the students who are grappling with Shakespeare's enduring query. Eton College in Vancouver, Canada, bears the British school's name but there is little resemblance: it's a coeducational, post-secondary institution that doesn't take boarders. Eton, England, doesn't pay any mind. But when would-be Eton knock-off schools in China tried to pass themselves[an error occurred while processing this directive] off as affiliates, the original summoned its lawyers to send threatening letters to protect its name.

That's not because Eton plans to develop its blue-chip brand abroad. But some of its rivals are doing just that. In the past decade, Harrow and Dulwich, two public (that is, fee-paying) schools in the London area with big reputations, have opened five franchises overseas between them — primary and secondary schools in China and Thailand that share their names and advertise a British-style education. Harrow now receives "six figures" per annum and Dulwich a "sizable amount" from their franchises abroad, say school officials. They are frank about wanting the money: with their operating costs increasing and the fees they charge parents rising faster than household incomes, something has to give. For Dulwich's headmaster, Graham Able, the franchises represent "a significant contribution" toward a goal of reinstating, within 15 years, the needs-blind admission policy that set Dulwich apart in the 1960s and '70s.

Famous brands in new locations bring other benefits. Aside from their direct revenue, Dulwich's schools in China provide the London school with free advertising abroad. While the overall number of foreign students enrolling in Britain's public schools has leveled off, Dulwich has watched its mainland Chinese student population more than double since it set up shop in Shanghai and Beijing in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

The key has been the quality of education. While Dulwich's College in Shanghai recruits its faculty independently of its London parent, the majority of its teachers are British. It also follows the English curriculum. "There's a real connection to Dulwich in London," says Tina Kanagaratnam, a Singaporean whose two U.S.-citizen children attend the Shanghai school. "It's not a question of just sticking the Dulwich name on a random school." When the school was faced with the double loss of its junior-school headmistress and senior-school headmaster last year, the London Dulwich shipped out an acting headmaster to replace them.

There's no sign of Dulwich dialing back on its overseas expansion. The franchise owners — an education-management firm linked to Dulwich, London, by alumnus and two-time Thailand Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun — will open two more schools in China: a junior school in Suzhou in 2007 and an upper-school joint venture with a leading Chinese high school in Beijing in 2008. Dulwich has plans for India, too. The trend has caught on: Shrewsbury School has a three-year-old affiliate in Bangkok, and a Dubai offshoot of Repton will open for business in 2007.

Given British schools' success overseas, can a private education by any other name smell as sweet? In Gamagori, Japan, Kaiyo Academy, backed by a group of high-ranking businessmen hoping to revamp Japanese academic standards, has tried to shake off the name minted by the local media, "Eton of Japan." Yet it may be the most Etonian of Japan's many British-inspired schools, since it's the first to require its teachers to board along with its students. It has also recruited Eton's help: a senior teacher is going (as an individual, not officially) to Kaiyo to advise during its inaugural year. It has even been criticized for pandering to Japan's upper echelon of students. Eton's critics used to talk like that. After 566 years Kaiyo will be able to shrug it off, too.