With rugby teams practising on its playing fields against the backdrop of a red-brick bell tower, Dulwich College is the picture of a quintessentially English private school.

But this is Shanghai, and the near-clone of the college’s 400-year old parent in London is one of a growing number of prestigious British educational institutions lending their names to newly minted offshoots abroad.

Officials at the UK’s Department for International Trade say they are aware of more than 120 foreign projects being considered by British schools. The new branches dovetail with the government’s global education strategy, which aims to support “ transnational education” of fee-paying pupils abroad as a source of exports. Many such pupils go on to apply for UK university places.