City's Harrow school could pay HK$10m a year for use of name

Up to 5 per cent of the turnover from Hong Kong's first international boarding school will be paid to its parent institution, Harrow School, in return for the use of its famous name.

The English public school could make HK$10 million a year from the new school that will be built in Tuen Mun, where fees are set to match those at the city's top international schools.

Harrow International School Hong Kong is being set up by Harrow International Management Services, which runs similar schools in Bangkok and Beijing.

Harrow is at the forefront of a trend sweeping independent schools in the UK to hire out their names under franchise agreements to Asian off-shoots in return for royalties used to fund bursaries at the parent school.

Most independent schools in Britain are run as charities and they are under pressure from the Charity Commission to offer many more free and subsidised places.

Under new rules brought in last July, the charity watchdog requires fee-charging charities to pass a 'public benefit' test by proving that people who cannot afford the fees can still access services - or lose their charitable status. The commission expects independent schools, which gain about GBP100 million (HK$1.24 billion) a year in tax breaks through charitable status, to use between 5 and 15 per cent of their income towards bursaries.