The business of international eduction

Schools educate students, develop skills, and serve communities. They also recruit employees, manage budgets, compete for enrolments, and make investment decisions. This makes international education a rich source of real-world examples for IB Business Management that resonate with our students.

According to ISC Research’s Global Market Overview 2026, reported by International Schools Today, the English-medium international schools sector includes 15 464 schools, educating almost 8 million students and employing over 756 000 teachers. Together, these schools generate approximately $78.2 billion in annual tuition fee income. This figure measures fee income - not profit or the sector’s financial valuation - or additional revenue streams.

Behind these headline figures are business decisions that students can investigate using familiar Business Management content.

🏫Growth: Building new schools or buying existing ones?

According to the research, almost 40% of international schools belong to a school group, while 54% of planned schools are expected to be group affiliated. Acquisitions are becoming an increasingly important route to expansion.

This provides a direct link to Unit 1.5 - Growth and evolution. Opening a new campus can represent internal growth, whereas acquiring an existing school represents external growth.

An acquisition may provide immediate access to students, employees, premises, and an established reputation. However, integrating different school cultures, employment practices, and information systems can be challenging.

Larger school groups may also benefit from economies of scale through bulk purchasing, shared marketing, and centralized administration. These savings are not guaranteed as additional management layers (a taller organizational structure) and slower communications may create diseconomies of scale.

Importantly, acquiring an existing school increases the buyer’s size but does not, by itself, increase the total number of schools in the market.

💵Revenue growth does not necessarily mean greater profitability

According to the report, school numbers have increased by 5% since 2021, while tuition fee income has risen by 29%!

Students can connect this to Unit 3.2 - Costs and revenues and Unit 3.5 - Profitability and liquidity ratio analysis. Higher revenue might reflect increased enrolment, higher fees, changes in the mix of schools, or exchange-rate movements. It does not establish that schools have become more profitable, especially as costs will have also increased during this time. For instance, salaries, premises, recruitment, technology, and borrowing costs may also rise. A school could therefore report higher revenue while experiencing a lower profit margin.

This distinction encourages students to question what descriptive statistics actually show (and do not show).

👥Stakeholders: Who benefits from expansion?

The growth of international school groups also connects to Unit 1.3 - Business objectives and Unit 1.4 - Stakeholders (both internal and external)

Owners of international school group may seek financial returns and expansion. Parents may prioritise affordability, examination results, and pastoral care. Teachers may value manageable workloads, professional development, and job security. Students need consistent and quality teaching and appropriate support.

These common business objectives can conflict. Increasing class sizes might reduce average costs (economies of scale), but could concern parents and teachers regarding quality and manageable expectations. Investment in school facilities may improve the educational experience, yet higher fees could make the school less accessible. There is a role for investment appraisal for such investments.

Students should also distinguish between for-profit schools and not-for-profit schools. Both need financial sustainability, but their ownership, objectives, and use of any financial surpluses can differ.

💬Marketing: Understanding changing family demand

The report identifies growing demand from local families in many markets, alongside demographic pressures on younger age groups.

This links directly to Unit 4.2: Marketing planning. Schools need to understand their target markets rather than assume that all families want the same experience.

For example, different segments may prioritize bilingual education, university preparation, learning support, sporting opportunities, or affordability. Market research can help schools identify these preferences and develop an appropriate position and marketing mix.

In particular, the seven Ps apply: the educational programme, fees, location, advertising and promotion, employees, admissions processes, and physical facilities all influence families’ decisions.

👤Human resources: Demand is not enough

A new school campus needs qualified educational leaders, teachers, as well as students. Recruitment difficulties therefore connect to Unit 2.1: Introduction to human resource management, alongside motivation and organizational culture.

Workforce planning must consider subject expertise, recruitment lead times, staff retention, and professional development requirements and opportunities. Expanding student enrolment without sufficient staffing could undermine service quality and damage the school’s reputation in the long term.

Using the Business Management Toolkit (BMT) to investigate strategic decisions

❓Bring the discussion into your classroom

Ask students to investigate an IB school or international school group and consider:

• Why might it acquire an existing school rather than open a new campus?
• Which stakeholders are most affected by an increase in fees?
• How could expansion create economies or diseconomies of scale?
• Which external factor presents the greatest strategic challenge?

Source: adapted from International Schools Today