Eton Group

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The Eton Group is an association of 12 English public schools within the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The Eton Group schools often cooperate with each other, organising events and school matches. For example, the Heads of academic departments meet to discuss curriculum matters of common interest. The Headteachers and the Bursars also meet from time to time. Unlike the older Rugby Group, which contains only boarding schools, the Eton Group includes both boarding schools outside of London and London schools taking day pupils. [1]

The 12 Eton Group schools are: [1]

In 2003, following an investigation by The Sunday Times into the Eton Group and other schools, the Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation into alleged fee-fixing at independent schools. [2] The bursar of Eton College, Andrew Wynn, was quoted as saying: "We do meet and talk about fees to get some idea of what other schools are thinking. We are a co-operative bunch and we are not out to slit each other's throats." [3] [4] The Independent Schools Council said independent schools were following long-established practice and were not aware that the Competition Act 1998 (on which they were not consulted) had removed their previous exemption from anti-cartel rules. [5]

The OFT concluded in 2005 that 50 schools, including seven in the Eton Group, had exchanged detailed information about planned fee levels in a survey coordinated by Sevenoaks School. [6] [7] The case was settled in 2006, with the schools admitting that such exchange of information "involved a distortion of competition and infringed competition law", but not admitting to any effect on fees. The schools each paid a £10,000 penalty, and agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3 million to a trust to benefit pupils attending the schools in the relevant years. [8]

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regulator. The intention was for the OFT to make markets work well for consumers, ensuring vigorous competition between fair-dealing businesses and prohibiting unfair practices such as rogue trading, scams, and cartels. Its role was modified and its powers changed by the Enterprise Act 2002.

In September 2005, fifty prominent private schools in the United Kingdom were found guilty of operating a fee-fixing cartel by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT found that the schools had exchanged details of their planned fee increases over three academic years 2001–02, 2002-03 and 2003–04, in breach of the Competition Act 1998.

The Rugby Group is a group of 18 British public schools. The group was formed in the 1960s as an association of major boarding schools within the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. As with the Eton Group, which was formed a few years later, headmasters and heads of the academic departments meet annually in rotation to discuss matters of common interest.

This is a partial list of notable price fixing and bid rigging cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public school (United Kingdom)</span> Fee-charging schools in England and Wales

In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession. In Scotland, a public school is synonymous with a state school in England and Wales. Fee-charging schools are typically referred to as private or independent schools.

There have been many controversies concerning Eton College, including those listed below.

References

  1. 1 2 Walford, Geoffrey (1986). Life in public schools. Taylor & Francis. pp. 10–11. ISBN   978-0-416-37180-2.
  2. ↑ Calvert, Jonathan; Winnett, Robert (21 September 2003). "Focus: Ripped off?". The Times . London. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  3. ↑ Winnett, Robert (23 October 2005). "Top public schools found guilty of fee-fixing cartel". The Times. London. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  4. ↑ Wilkinson, Nick (2005). Managerial Economics: A Problem-Solving Approach. Cambridge University Press. pp. 325–327. ISBN   978-1-139-44358-6.
  5. ↑ "Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 January 2004. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
  6. ↑ "OFT issues statement of objections against 50 independent schools" (Press release). Office of Fair Trading. 9 November 2005. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Elliott, Caroline; Konara, Palitha; Wei, Yingqi (2016). "Competition, cooperation and regulatory intervention impacts on independent school fees". International Journal of the Economics of Business. 23 (2): 243–262. doi:10.1080/13571516.2016.1144011. S2CID   55259320.
  8. ↑ "Independent schools agree settlement" (Press release). Office of Fair Trading. 19 May 2006. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  1. ↑ "OFT issues statement of objections against 50 independent schools". The Office of Fair Trading. 9 March 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
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