The Global Private Education Industry Is Coming For Switzerland's Expensive Schools

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Verbier's pandemic-era growth triggered an elite schooling boom - and a merger that could reshape private education in the Swiss Alps. This content was published on September 4, 2025 - 11:27 17 minutes Alan Livsey, The Financial Times

In March 2020, Ariane de Bonvoisin was skiing in Verbier, Switzerland, with her husband and her son. A native of New York, she had skied there since childhood and her family had a chalet in the village, but she had never considered making it a more permanent residence - until Covid gave them the opportunity.

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After some back and forth between the federal authorities and the local commune about whether foreign visitors could stay, the government agreed to keep ski resorts open for the 2020-21 season. Bonvoisin and her husband decided to sit out the pandemic in Verbier - she could run her executive coaching business remotely, her husband could consult. But they faced a pressing question: how would they educate their son?

“I had seen kids from the local school skiing before and [happened to] visit just before Covid,” says Bonvoisin when we speak by phone.“Then I was caught there and tried to hybrid- and home-school my son . . . I would see the kids walking around Verbier and always thought, 'Wow, what an amazing childhood!'”

There was not much choice for international students, as might be expected in a village of just over 3,100 permanent residents. Those smartly uniformed kids she had admired turned out to be at Verbier International School (VIS), founded in 2011 with a focus on outdoor education for primary pupils.

Bonvoisin's son spent three happy years at VIS, but as its earliest students grew into teenagers and more families found themselves passing the pandemic in Verbier, some parents wanted to see more academic ambition from VIS and higher educational standards, they told FT Wealth.

“Back then, the academic level wasn't good enough,” says one parent who took her children out of VIS.“We were not happy. The winter students, of course, had an impact on the academics.” Those winter students were children on a“ski term”, who came from abroad for the season from January to April to keep up their studies while they enjoyed the slopes.

The benefit to such schools is that they typically charge 70 per cent of a full year's fees just for the winter term, one industry figure estimates. (Jean-Jacques Roh, who owned VIS at the time, says the school“always had high academic standards, but we have always been very realistic”.)

It was in this swirl of Covid and ski terms and unhappy parents that the split happened - quietly dividing a close-knit community and heralding the arrival of the big-money, global private-education business in a small Swiss village.

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Around the wooden chalet-style buildings of the Copperfield school is a glorious amphitheatre of Swiss peaks - Pierre Avoi, and towering Mont Fort further east. As I look at the school on a warm June day, I can see what appeals about it to its ski-minded students. Within a sharply pitched roof are modern, airy spaces inviting both pupils and teachers to gaze out at the hills.

Copperfield was the result of the split. It was founded in 2021 by its first head, Hugh McCormick, and some wealthy investors, previous parents at VIS, who wanted an alternative.“Pretty much all of them said, 'If you open a school, we'll put our kids in,'” says McCormick. He named the school after his favourite novel, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

An added attraction came later. Once it received its accreditation in mid-2022, it could boast that it was the only ski-in, ski-out institution teaching the international baccalaureate, a rigorous pre-university degree programme focused on 16-19 year olds. For part of the academic year, pupils step out of their studies and into their bindings.

Verbier, like most ski resorts, had long catered to the fly-in, fly-out international crowd but - not least thanks to the pandemic - it started to acquire a larger year-round population. Despite its reputation as a playground for the wealthiest skiers, the village exudes a casual vibe, with few upmarket shops or restaurants. On my summer visit I see year-round residents wandering around, chatting to friends over quiche and salad at La Cucina, discussing mountain bike rides.

Verbier's altitude, up to 3,300 metres, means it receives regular snowfall, and Switzerland's broader attractions - a stable currency, favourable tax regime - all work to support it. What the village had lacked was a key part of infrastructure: an international school large enough to support both primary and secondary students, delivering excellent academic results.

Even given the growing year-round population, it was not easy to find students. McCormick regularly flew to cities such as São Paulo to recruit pupils for his fledgling institution, where annual fees, including boarding, hit SFr116,500 ($144,320). When it opened, it had 22 primary and secondary students, hailing from Scandinavia, the UK and US. (Local children tend to attend the state-run school in the valley.)

Copperfield's arrival caused tension among the parents. Yet by the time of my visit any ill feeling had tempered. Most of those I spoke with described the divided parents as, if not friendly, at least respectful to each other.

Competition worked its way. After Copperfield received its international baccalaureate accreditation, VIS fought back, expanding its boarding and IB offerings. But neither school had enough students, meaning they could not muster sufficient scale operationally to rival more established boarding schools elsewhere with better teachers and facilities.

An uneasy equilibrium developed, and that was when Dukes arrived.

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In this small Alpine village with two international schools, Dukes Education chose the scrappy new player.

UK-based Dukes has 28 schools in the UK, with another 24 across mainland Europe, and is part of the global private education industry; the OECD club of rich economies estimated spending on private primary and secondary education at about $164bn in 2020. One of the older international private education groups, Nord Anglia, founded in 1972 and owned by Swedish private equity group EQT, has more than 80 schools, of which four are in Switzerland. In March, Nord Anglia brought in new investors at a valuation of $14.5bn.

Switzerland is a particular battleground for these groups. An exceptionally high academic standard in established schools comes with prices to match. At Institut Le Rosey, boarding and tuition fees for the coming academic year are SFr167,200. Founded in 1880, it has campuses at Rolle, half an hour from Geneva, and at Gstaad for the winter term.

VIS's Roh says that the international school fees in Verbier have historically been significantly lower.“Some of these schools are so expensive,” he tells me while we lunch at La Cucina,“that parents have reduced the number of [schooling] years to three rather than five years.”

Of course, the landscape is not all about examination results.“In the pandemic, the realisation came about that the biggest challenge to young people was mental health,” says Aatif Hassan, the founder of Dukes Education.“So outdoor learning was in demand from parents and students, more a part of the decision than before.” Switzerland's schools, with plenty of outdoors, started to compete more intensely with each other.

Another challenger to Verbier's schools was St George's in Montreux, a boarding school that has long marketed itself to international parents in Verbier. The Montreux school offers buses to and from Verbier, an hour each way, for day students.

St George's is part of Inspired Education Group, founded by British-Lebanese financier Nadim M Nsouli in 2013. It now stretches to more than 120 schools around the world, including a second Swiss school further west in Ticino.

“We've seen a significant increase in international enquiries, particularly for boarding placements,” Nsouli says in an email.“While demand remains strong from traditional

markets such as the US, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, we are also seeing notable growth from [places such as] Australia, Brazil and Mexico.”

Inspired also eyes opportunities in Switzerland. It plans to expand boarding capacity and sporting facilities at St George's, and Nsouli says that“we are also in active discussions to add another Inspired school in the heart of Switzerland.” In this rich, competitive context, Dukes' decision to buy Copperfield made sense. The group wanted a foothold in Switzerland, and the school, now attracting students from Asia and elsewhere, needed growth capital to meet longer-term demand.

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Are you Tim?

It is Tim.

It turns out that Dukes' UK chief executive, Tim Fish, is going to be on my flight to Geneva, so he has offered me a lift for the two-hour drive to Verbier. I notice a man in a blue linen jacket at the airport and am sure it is Fish - some subliminal headmasterly attitude, perhaps. Luckily it is, and after we land in Geneva we walk over to his BMW hire car.

“Switzerland has high altitude and rarefied markets,” Fish says as he drives along the motorway, a tutorial eye on the speedometer. For wealthy parents,“it's about which Swiss school, not Switzerland versus Spain.

“If you were in any other country at the top of a mountain, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the opportunities of going on to US or European universities.”

Dukes viewed Verbier as a lovely place, and Copperfield as a lovely opportunity, in one of the most prestigious educational markets. Hassan notes to me that Verbier is“becoming a centre for entertainment and education”.

“Swiss education is a great global brand,” says Fish.“Also, in times of uncertainty, neutrality and stability are worthwhile.”

But Dukes realised it would only obtain a truly strong foothold in Verbier - one it could use to outcompete rival schools in rival villages - if Copperfield escaped the enervating competition with VIS. What it needed was a merger.

Rumours of a merger had been spreading through Verbier for some time. One parent at VIS said he had pushed for a merger since 2023. Another, a former adviser to the school, had also recommended this to the VIS management. The official announcement to parents came in early June 2025: VIS and Copperfield will integrate, but with no details on the ownership.

Roh, who also owns other primary day schools, had at first rejected approaches from Dukes for VIS. He tells me of his reluctance to sell, as he could see the potential in Verbier for international education. But he eventually agreed to a partnership in which he retained an undisclosed amount of equity and remains as president of VIS. He believes that the combined schools“will help VIS compete with St George's”. Copperfield will move into a new, larger VIS building, completed this summer, giving up its rented slope-side base.

On our drive to Verbier, it is clear Fish knows that parents will be concerned about what the merger might mean, so he is planning to reassure them in a public meeting, the language of partnership slipping out fluently.“Jean-Jacques will bring local knowledge,” he says.“We bring the experience of different schools and curricula.”

To prepare for both the merger and the external competition, Dukes hired as its director Grant Ferguson in August 2024, a career teacher at both UK and international schools, from the well-regarded Swiss boarding school Collège Alpin Beau Soleil in nearby Villars. At Beau Soleil, as director of studies, his task was to develop and improve the IB programme and grades, something Copperfield's new owners wanted.

Roh now likes the idea of one strong school in the village.“International schools are not like restaurants, you can't have lots of them in a town like Verbier,” he believes.“You need a strong one. Two small schools encourage people to move elsewhere.”

He eventually wants the merged school to have a capacity of 200 beds for boarders, up from 70 now and 90 next year. As he puts it,“Wealthy people want a nice life, proximity to the airport and a good school. It's part of the infrastructure.” But property costs in Verbier are high and he hopes the commune of Val de Bagnes will help cover some of the school's costs.

The meeting Dukes is hosting for parents in June has the potential to be fraught. Not everyone wants this merger, according to one mother, given their wariness of private-equity owned schools mostly driven by profit.“Making a profit out of people's education is tricky,” notes another sceptical parent.

Others still have doubts about VIS and what they perceive as its lack of academic vision.“That's why VIS is losing kids to St George's,” says another parent.

A Copperfield parent, however, says that while she had been uncertain, she feels reassured by the news that Ferguson will assume the headship for the merged schools.

Although I have been invited to attend the meeting, the door is shut when I arrive, for reasons of privacy. But parents in attendance say that they left feeling positive - many had been wondering how long Verbier could support two year-round international schools.

For Frederick (not his real name), a VIS parent at the meeting,“it became quite apparent that it was more an acquisition than a merger.” Another, one of the founding Copperfield parents, thinks the meeting was“very positive and enthusiastic. I have good hopes.”

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For the broader community of Swiss locals and expatriates, a successful school should add some cohesion. However relaxed and friendly Verbier life can be, the novelty of working from there can wear thin, and an anchor - such as a year-round school for your children - is an incentive to stay.

But even after the merger, Verbier's challenges and tensions may increase. A national referendum in November is putting the question of new wealth taxes to the electorate.

Some new full-time residents miss their former busy corporate lives; as one parent quipped,“Every time you get to Verbier, you book your next flight out.”

Some multigenerational Swiss locals do not want a transient international population nor their flashy accoutrements. Unlike in St Moritz or Gstaad, there are few luxury shops in Verbier. The W Hotel and a branch of London's 67 Pall Mall wine club stand out as rare upscale hospitality spots. The annual Verbier Festival of classical music bridges rich tourists and regular locals.

There are residents pushing for a livelier village. Florian Michellod, a local private banker and resident, has taken charge of promoting tourism and development in Verbier. He would like more nightlife and worries that in the summer, especially, there is not enough to do. More year-round restaurants and hotels are needed, he says.

“Our aim is really to be open at least 10 months a year. To say we are going to be open 12 months a year would be nice. It's a goal, it's an objective, but we have to be also realistic.”

But attracting more permanent global citizens also means finding the teachers and other professionals for the school, who will need affordable and relatively local accommodation. In recent years many residents have been priced out of the main village and live near Le Châble rail station, 10 minutes below the village via the ski gondola, or further out. Verbier ranks second only to St Moritz for priciest European Alpine retreats, according to a recent report from UBS.

“Now we are looking for [older] more experienced teachers for upper secondary with families,” says Roh.“We need to find a proper real estate solution and we are thinking a good [one] is to have some of the people living in Martigny.” The town is a 35-minute drive away, down in the valley.“It's a good place to live, a normal city with a normal life.”

That split between mountain- and valley-dwellers is part of Verbier's evolution. The once quiet village known for its off-piste skiing is experiencing the opportunities and strains that hosting year-round elites can bring, along with a global industry keen on profiting from them. The schools are only the beginning.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025

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