A comparison of private schooling in the United Kingdom and Australia

In this article, we compare the nature of private schooling in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The experience of the two countries has been very different over the recent past. In Australia, around one-third of children currently attend a school outside the government sector, with this proportion having risen strongly over the past 30 years. In contrast, only a small minority of children in the United Kingdom attends a private school, which has remained largely constant at around 6-7 per cent of children for much of the recent past. In Australia, there are also large public subsidies on offer for children attending schools outside the government sector, whilst there are currently no direct subsidies in the United Kingdom. In what follows, we look separately at the experience of private schooling in the United Kingdom and Australia and attempt to draw lessons from each country's individual experience.