Summer camp proves a hot ticket among young students

Tailor-made

Meanwhile, many niche players are also emerging into the market, offering tailor-made programs with focus in music, drama, sports, among others.

The London etiquette establishment Debrett's runs a summer camp program focusing on teaching young children British etiquette, which regularly attracts Chinese students.

The UK-based CC Education is running an all-girls luxury camp in the British county of Hampshire, offering unique cultural activities such as horse-riding, cooking, painting, flower arrangement dance, music, arts & crafts.

CC Education is also launching a new program called Mum and Me next year, to target Chinese and other Asian students who have limited experiences being away from home. The program allows mothers to enjoy their own activities, such as shopping, and join their daughters after they finish class.

On average overseas summer camp trip costs around an average of 29,000 yuan ($4,380), which is significantly higher compared to a domestic study trip’s average cost of 4,200 yuan, according to Ctrip data.

Wang Qingsu, a parent, says he feels overseas study trips are definitely more attractive for parents who could afford such trips. His 11-year-old daughter Angela Wang attended a UK summer camp last year.

“The trip allowed my daughter to improve her English, broaden her vision of the outside world, and develop an ambition to apply for university overseas later,”Wang said.

Booming business opportunities, however, also create challenges.  One big issue is the quick emergence of many different summer camps onto the market, and many parents and students can feel confused as to which camp to pick.

Some such camps are actually hosted by tour operators, meaning the camps are dominated by tourism experiences with little academic component.

“In China, this market is difficult to regulate. The existence of tourism-based study trips is not a problem because some students may prefer such trips. But these trips should not be marketed under the disguise of learning-based camps,”said Qian.

Luckily, students signing up for British summer camps would find the market easier to navigate, as the government agency British Council keeps a list of accredited summer schools, which it regularly monitors for quality.

Summer camps without official accreditation can still operate, but they just have a harder task to do when persuading customers about their quality.

Most students return home with sweet memories and everlasting friendships, but some disappointments are unavoidable.

Zhang Shuji, a Shanghai University student who attended a summer camp hosted by King‘’s College London, said she was disappointed upon realizing her classes are not taught by KCL’s faculty members.

“I was slightly disappointed because originally I wanted to interact with KCL professors so I can gain a better understanding of whether I would like to apply to this university for my master’s degree,”said Zhang.

“It was later that I realized our classes are taught by academics freelanced by the school to teach the summer program. In the end I didn’t mind too much, because the teachers were very professional too,”she said.

In most cases, summer school programs in the UK are not taught by the host institute’s own teachers, because these teachers take holidays in the summer months during school holidays.

Another common complaint, of course, is the lack of flavor and diversity of British food.

“We ate potatoes almost every day in the school canteen, and I could hardly taste any flavors in the potatoes. In the last week of the camp we really couldn’t survive the boring food anymore, so we ended up going out to a Chinese restaurant everyday,”said Wu.