About us

Kaplan International is a division of education company Kaplan Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company, formerly known as The Washington Post Company. Kaplan International is headquartered in London and consists of a number of global education businesses including Kaplan International Pathways and Kaplan International Languages. Kaplan International Pathways has partnerships with over 40 universities worldwide and prepares 20,000 international students for university each year. Kaplan International Languages provides English courses, as well as French and German courses after acquiring Alpadia Language Schools in 2019, and it offers a wide range of courses at locations in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. As a result of government-imposed travel restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaplan International's revenue fell 13% in 2020 to US$654 million, although still accounted for half of Kaplan Inc.’s total revenue in that year.

Kaplan opened its first university pathway college in 2005 on the campus of Nottingham Trent University in UK, and Kaplan International Colleges grew two years later with the opening of two new International Colleges at Russell Group institutions, the University of Glasgow and the University of Liverpool. It expanded globally in 2007 with the addition of an on-campus pathway with Northeastern University in Boston in the United States, and the acquisition of a pathway college for the University of Adelaide, one of Australia's Group of Eight universities.In 2007, Kaplan Inc. expanded its group of English language schools mainly based in the United States by acquiring Aspect Education, a global chain of 19 schools across six English-speaking countries, based in London. Aspect Education traced its origins back to 1963, and had grown by the acquisition of two other English language school chains, Angloworld Travel and International Language Academies. Aspect CEO, David Jones, retained leadership of the combined entity, Kaplan Aspect, which was launched in September 2007.

Kaplan Aspect grew its global network in 2008 and 2009 with a number of acquisitions of English language schools in Australia, Canada, UK and USA. In 2009, Kaplan Aspect was merged into Kaplan International Colleges, with David Jones leading the new division as CEO.

In 2012, Kaplan International wholly acquired two international student recruitment agencies; BEO Limited in Japan, and Hands On Education Consultants in Thailand. Kaplan CEO, David Jones became responsible for all transnational programmes (students travelling to study) as well as Kaplan Asia Pacific following the departure of Mark Coggins, its former CEO.

Kaplan International moved into the UK secondary school sector in 2015 with the acquisition of Mander Portman Woodward, a sixth form college group with schools in London, Cambridge and Birmingham.

In 2019, Kaplan International English changed its name to Kaplan International Languages, after acquiring the Swiss-owned company Alpadia Language Schools and partnering with Enforex, one of the largest Spanish language education businesses in Spain and Latin America, enabling it to offer language courses in English, French, German and Spanish

Kaplan International also acquired ESL Education Group in 2019, the largest language agency in Europe. ESL is headquartered in Switzerland and places over 25,000 students in language programs every year.