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At least a dozen private schools across Sydney are charging parents $5000 in enrolment fees to secure a place for their child, furnishing schools with millions of dollars in revenue in addition to collecting private school fees.
Top-performing selective private school Sydney Grammar’s fee to preserve a place for one boy hit $9000, comprising a $8735 enrolment fee and a $300 application fee.
Sydney Grammar is charging parents $9000 to secure enrolment.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Eastern suburbs institutions Cranbrook, Kambala, Ascham and Scots will all charge $6000 or more this year, while in the city’s north, Queenwood, Wenona and Pymble Ladies’ College set enrolments fees at about $4000.
Former headmaster of The King’s School, Dr Tim Hawkes, said enrolment fees contributed to paying salaries, marketing, and assessment costs – but also served another purpose.
“They test a family’s commitment to a school, and help to prevent what can be a significant cash loss to a school if, after reserving a place, the family flits off to another school,” he said.
“It is important to realise that any money raised by schools through enrolment fees is typically spent enriching the educational offering of the school. In other words, it is the students themselves that are the major beneficiaries.
“Sometimes an abandoned place can be refilled – but not always.”
The enrolment fees are on top of application fees, typically of a few hundred dollars, so parents can put their child’s name down after birth.
Enrolment fees are typically paid about two years before a student starts, and often split into two separate payments, such as an acceptance and an entrance fee.
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In the middle of the year after a child’s birth, Shore’s admissions team issue its initial round of offers the school calls “baby offers”. A non-refundable enrolment application fee of $1500 is payable upon acceptance of this place offer followed by $4500 later on.
Carly Landa from Regent Consulting, which advises prospective private school parents, said families typically applied to multiple schools because the application process was highly competitive.
“It is very competitive to get into private school, and it is getting more competitive,” she said.
Because parents cast a wide net with waitlists, she said it was not uncommon for some parents who submit NAPLAN scores, family references and school reports to receive multiple offers before being asked to pay the application fee.
“It is a weeding out process for the schools. They need to make sure they’re filling their quotas,” she said.
She said some found the application process invasive because schools asked about parents’ marital status and the practice of asking for a passport-sized photo of students was common.
Landa noted that the transition to co-ed at Barker College had resulted in the school experiencing a surge in popularity.
“Ten years ago, Barker was really easy to get into. Now, Barker is really difficult to get into,” she said.
“I have been told there’s no point because there’s not going to be a place.”
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Cash handed over by parents to pay enrolment fees, which are non-refundable, is treated by schools as an advance payment for future services, according to the financial reports of numerous schools.
For accounting purposes, it is recognised as revenue over the expected period of time the student will be at school from entry to year 12.
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