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Comparative Education
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The global growth of the International

Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
over the first 40 years: a critical
assessment
Tristan Bunnell

Department of Economics , Copenhagen International School ,

Hellerup, Denmark
Published online: 10 Dec 2008.

To cite this article: Tristan Bunnell (2008) The global growth of the International Baccalaureate
Diploma Programme over the first 40 years: a critical assessment, Comparative Education, 44:4,
409-424, DOI: 10.1080/03050060802481439
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050060802481439

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Comparative Education
Vol. 44, No. 4, November 2008, 409424

The global growth of the International Baccalaureate Diploma

Programme over the first 40 years: a critical assessment
Tristan Bunnell*
Department of Economics, Copenhagen International School, Hellerup, Denmark

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Comparative
10.1080/03050060802481439
CCED_A_348311.sgm
0305-0068
Original
Taylor
402008
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tbunnelluk@yahoo.co.uk
TristanBunnell
00000November
and
&
Article
Francis
(print)/1360-0486
Francis
Education
2008
Ltd
(online)

The year 2007 was a highly significant one for international education in an
internationally minded school context. It marked the fortieth anniversary of the first
trial exam of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). This paper
charts the rather random global growth of this programme, from it being a long-awaited
experiment in international education sat by 147 students in two schools, to it being a
curriculum offered in 1779 schools in 128 countries. It is shown how the initially
Eurocentric bias of the global spread has become a distinct North American one. At
present 35% of schools can be found in the US, whilst Africa accounts for only 2%. In
38 countries there is a single school offering the programme. The wider implications of
this regional disparity are explored, concluding that perhaps the programme requires a
more critical and planned growth strategy.

The concept of international education

International education and the International Baccalaureate
The academic study of international education has always involved a complex set of dimensions. The common currency (Lowe 1998) form of comparative education involves the
transfer of knowledge and expertise between national systems of education, and is often
largely theoretical (Watson 1999), involving explanations of educational phenomena. The
twin field (Wilson 1994), involving a class of educational institutions loosely and rather
clumsily labelled international schools, only formally emerged when the 1964 World
Yearbook of Education identified them as a new phenomenon (Knight and Leach 1964).
This dimension of education has moved far beyond a simple dichotomy. A distinct third
field, in the form of the global market in cross-border degrees is also increasingly aligned
with international education (e.g., Marginson 2007). Furthermore, the curricula of many
subjects have been internationalised, particularly in the humanities/social science subject
areas (Van Der Wende 1997), whilst online distance learning means now that the curricula
can travel across borders yet the international student can stay at home (Van Der Wende
2001). This muddies the water significantly, leading to the assertion that international
education should be conceptualised within a Venn diagram model, with distinct but
overlapping dimensions (Hayden 2006).
This is particularly true in the case of the 1779 schools (correct early September 2008)
offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), an examination
which originated 40 years ago in part to facilitate the global transfer of students to higher
education institutions. The addition of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in 1994, plus
the Primary Years Programme (PYP) in 1997, has led to the emergence of an extremely
*Email: tbunnelluk@yahoo.co.uk
ISSN 0305-0068 print/ISSN 1360-0486 online
2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/03050060802481439
http://www.informaworld.com

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T. Bunnell

diverse universe of 2400 globally branded IB World Schools. Annual growth stands at a
steady 15%, and there are expected to be one million IB students by 2014 (Sobulis 2005).
Interestingly, only 117 schools offer all three programmes together, highlighting the extent
to which they are stand-alone courses. The geographical origins of the IB can be deduced
by the fact that the IB Organisation (IBO) is based in Geneva, Switzerland, whilst the
curriculum and assessment centre is located in Cardiff, Wales. For this reason, the IB
programmes are always prone to being viewed Eurocentric, and this was also initially true
of the spread of schools. Today the global spread is undergoing a different movement and
is the focus of this paper.
This dimension of international education is itself a very complex area, involving further
overlapping dimensions. The term in this context seemingly came about from want of a
better one (Gellar 1981), and has always been inadequate and misleading. Its use was
consolidated by the UNESCO General Conference of November 1974 in Paris, but is now
deemed to be reaching the end of its useful life (James 2005). The term is a historically
changing one. Until the First World War, the term international educational relations was
widely used. In the 1930s the term world-mindedness appeared, and in 1949 UNESCO
convened a Conference of Internationally-Minded Schools (CIS). A consensually agreed
alternative term has yet to emerge, although the concept of international mindedness has
recently re-emerged (e.g., Baker and Kanan 2005), whilst cosmopolitan education (e.g.,
Gunesch, 2004) is also in vogue. This debate partly explains the dearth of material within
the public domain.
This paper is intended to offer a critical overview of the global spread of the IBDP as it
reaches the fortieth anniversary mark. This is in line with the emergence lately of critically
reflective literature. Keher (2006) offered an AsiaPacific perspective, and Yin (2006) has
been critical about it catering for the children in Malaysia who are host-country nationals.
Hahns (2003) study of IBDP materials published revealed a western and American dominance in terms of the language used. This is not surprising given its global development.
The time has come for a more critical analysis of international education, and its realities
and its biases (Grimshaw 2005, 11).
International schools and the IBDP
The group ISC Research identified 3876 international schools (figure correct in July
2006). However, this amazingly precise figure should be viewed with scepticism. Many of
the schools in an international context (Cambridge and Thompson 2000) have what
Sylvester (1998) refers to as encapsulated missions, catering specifically for overseas
students of one particular culture. The network of 413 French schools overseas is by far the
largest. The alternative body of schools, those possessing inclusive missions (Sylvester
1998), falls within a further dichotomy. Peterson (1972a), writing at a time when there were
a dozen IBDP schools, was one of the first to note two main types. On the one hand there
was the International School of Geneva, ideologically committed to the project. On the
other hand there was the Copenhagen International School, seeking a pragmatic vehicle for
serving the globally-mobile diplomatic community. This dichotomy was later articulated
within a framework of ideology-driven or market-driven schools (Matthews 1989),
whilst Cambridge and Thompson (2004) offered an internationalist and globalist
framework.
The body of IBDP schools today is very different from the original base. Some schools
have adopted the IB exam to carve out a distinctive identity, rather than for intrinsically
ideological reasons (McGee 2003). This seemed to imply that the IBDP offers marketing

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advantage purposes. The IBOs new logo in 2001 was seen as part and parcel of a global
branding exercise (Cambridge 2002). A second fundamental shift that has occurred is
exemplified by the fact that 55% of todays IB World Schools are state-funded, whilst only
18% of students attend international schools as such (Walker 2003).
This shift has led to the emergence of the broader concept of the internationally
minded school (Hill 2002). For example, the Presbyterian Ladies College, in Melbourne,
Australia, has offered the IBDP since 1990, and has emerged as a de facto international
school (Schroeder 2005). The present-day IBDP universe also extends much further into
encapsulated mission territory. For instance, in Sydney, The German School has offered
the IBDP since 2002, and The French School started it in 2005. This has been a long-term
process. Malpass (1993, 11) identified that the adoption of the IB by a number of national
schools had blurred the distinction. Hence, it would be positively wrong today to claim
that all schools offering the IBDP are international schools. At the same time it would be
wrong to claim that an international school must offer the IBDP. Cambridge International
Examinations (CIE) has offered programmes since 1988, whilst at least 540 schools worldwide offer the International Primary Curriculum. Many international schools have opted for
such an Adaptation (Thompson 1998) curriculum.
Despite the vagueness of the concept, it has been stated that international schools have
universal features (Thompson 1998), such as a curriculum and faculty that promotes international mindedness. Gellar (2002) saw an international curriculum as a key feature, and
the one that many international schools have opted for has been the IB examinationsystem, with its philosophical foundation of liberal education for human rationality
(Sobulis 2005, 2). The IBDP has emerged as the main form of Creative curriculum,
created from first principles, on offer to international schools. Drennen (2002, 55) argues
that very few examples exist of curricula that have been designed, de novo, to satisfy
international education objectives. It is claimed that the IBDP has been central to the
development of international education in practice (Cambridge and Thompson 2004) and
remains at present a near-monopoly mode of curriculum and study (Walker 2005). The
adoption of the IBDP is for many schools the most obvious outward manifestation of their
international school status (Wilkinson 2002, 189).
The worldwide growth of the IBDP since 1994 has been remarkable. The 100-mark was
hit in 1982, and 1990 saw the 300th appear. The 500-mark was passed in 1994. At the start
of the new Millennium, the universe had grown to 877, and the 1000-mark was eventually
passed in 2002. The past 12 years has seen an increase of almost 1000 schools, more than
double the amount that had appeared during the period of the entire first 20 years. However,
there have always been large regional discrepancies, as shown in this paper.
The literature on the IBDP
The paucity of literature
There is a surprising paucity of literature regarding the IBDP. Bagnall (1994) noted how
only 12 major works on the programme had been published 1980 to 1993, and 10 of these
were doctoral theses. Even the IBOs online research database offers only 43 (out of 4800)
articles directly relating to the development of the DP. Foxs (1985) article in the Harvard
Educational Review is regarded as a seminal one (Hayden 2001) and was one of the first in
the public domain, outside the parameters of the normal internal discourse. One of the chief
architects of the IBDP project was undeniably Alec Peterson (19081988), and Petersons
(1972a) account of the development of the DP is one of the most comprehensive, and
probably accurate, for this period. Confusingly, every author seems to have a different view

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about the main architects. Fox (1998a) highlights the role of the University of Chicagos
Professor Ralph Taylor. Hill (2001) highlights the role of the Dutch Quaker Cornelis Boeke
(18441966), founder of a Montessori school in Bilthoven. This issue is arguably worthy of
its own study, and of greater scholarly clarification.
Little scholarship has as yet been devoted to the rationale behind the growth of the
programme, beyond notably McGees (2003), and Pariss (2003) surveys. Evans and
Burson (2005) state that their state funded school in Colorado adopted the IBDP due to
parental pressure for a higher standard of educational product, and this fits with Spahns
(2001) survey in the US showing 70% adopted the IBDP to improve academic standards.

The depth of literature

Research has recently begun to appear into the relative qualities and effectiveness of the
IBDP. Sen (2001) drew up a list of its strengths and weaknesses. The positive effect of the
curriculum on a childs international experience has been well documented (e.g., Thomas
1988; Daniel and Cox 1992), and more recently researched into by Hayden and Wong
(1997), and Hinrichs (2003). The historical development of the programme has been
documented (e.g., Goodman 1985; Fox 1998a; Hill 2002) although much of this focuses on
the early stirrings phase during the 1960s.
Hill (2005a) explored the policy formation process of the IBDP from the 1960s to 1978.
The history of the curriculum in Latin America has been forthcoming from Fox (1998b),
and in the US from Tyson (1984), and Spahn (2001), who also offers interesting casestudies from three schools. There has been much comment on the development of the IBDP
in Australia (e.g., Maclehose and Hill 1989; Hill 1990; and Bagnall 1997), which is not too
surprising since that country now has the fourth largest bloc worldwide. Africa has received
seemingly little attention, aside from Wallace (1998) commenting on West Africa.
Renaud (1974) assessed the experimental period until 1974, whilst an assessment of
the first 10 years was offered by Rose (1977), and the first 20 years from Coffey (1987),
and to some extent by Goodman (1985). A much more comprehensive series started to
appear six years ago from Hill (2001) in the International Schools Journal, and has now
reached its thirteenth instalment, although so far it deals predominantly only with the early
stirrings period. Readers specifically interested in the painfully slow progress and
somewhat drawn-out trial and experiment examination period 19671976 should consult
(Hill 2004a), whilst the curriculum design of the IBDP is well covered by Hill (2004b).
Several individual histories of pioneer schools are on offer, such as: the United Nations
International School, in New York (Malinowski and Zorn 1973); the United World College
movement (Peterson 1987; Murphy 1988; Sutcliffe 1991); the Copenhagen International
School (Keson 1988); and the International School of Geneva (Knight 1999). The story of
how the Overseas School of Colombo adopted the curriculum was offered by Forster
(1983). The historical background to the International Schools Association, which emerged
in 1951 as the earliest attempt at the conscious structuring of international education, has
also been documented (Renaud 1991).

The origins of the IBDP

The rationale for the IBDP
The idea of an internationally accepted university entrance diploma had actually been
mooted four times (Hill 2002) since the International School of Geneva was established in

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1924, but each attempt failed. It was not until the early 1960s that a vanguard of international schools appeared, forming the new phenomenon identified at the time by the aforementioned Yearbook of Education. This point in history saw much formal structuring of
international education. The United World College of The Atlantic emerged in its South
Wales castle in 1962, and the US Department of State established its Office of Overseas
Schools in 1963. The following year saw the International Schools Examination Syndicate
(ISES) emerge, a body which in 1968 officially became the Geneva-based IBO. Also in
1964 a Draft Proposal for an International Baccalaureate was published in the ISA
Newsletter Bulletin, proposing the study of eight subjects, rather than the six that eventually
emerged within the IBDP hexagonal.
The exact rationale behind the need for the Diploma is a complex one and is best explored
via Peterson (1972a), Fox (1998b), and Hill (2002). The commonly held notion that it came
about through the pragmatic need for an educational Nansen passport (Peterson 1972a, 19)
is certainly true, and Keson (1991) noted that international schools began to to sprout like
mushrooms in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many, if not most, were market-driven
serving diplomatic and multinational corporation employees, and had a need for a transferable internationally recognised leaving certificate.
The programme also arose from a desire to harmonise the different national curricula
and teaching methods employed in schools such as the one in Geneva (Hayden and Wong
1997, 351). Hence, the exact rationale behind the emergence of the programme is remarkably localised. The history teachers at the International School of Geneva wanted a more
internationalist curriculum, plus there was a need for a programme that could unite the
different communities within the school. True to its Cold War origins, it was also expected
that the curriculum would have ideological, as well as pragmatic, benefits (Peterson 1972a).
The IBDP can be seen as having offered a package of utilitarian, and ideological, as well as
pedagogical benefits.
The birth of the IBDP
A paper that intends to examine the growth of the IBDP over its first 40 years needs to offer
an explanation as to the date of origin. It is difficult to specify exactly the date of birth of
the curriculum. A significant contender would be the inaugural meeting in Paris, April 1949,
of the CIS where two major items were discussed, one of which was Cornelis Boekes idea
for an international educational institution offering an international diploma (Hill 2001,
18). A second early contender would be the four-week long conference, also organised by
the CIS in the summer of 1950 for teachers interested in international education at the
International School of Geneva. The course attracted 50 teachers and, according to Hill
(2002), produced a definition of international education which foreshadowed much of the
philosophy of the later IBDP. Thirdly, Hill (2002, 23) notes that Alec Peterson published in
1960 a report entitled Arts and Science Sides in the Sixth Form, which apparently offered
a similar structure to the eventual IBDP one.
A meeting of 50 social science teachers in Geneva in 1962 saw the development the year
after of the first course, in Contemporary History. According to Spahn (2001), it was at the
1962 meeting that the title International Baccalaureate was first used. Another very significant historical event was a meeting in Geneva in March 1965 of over 40 educationalists that
drew up the IBDP Hexagonal framework that remains in much the same format today.
This meeting was identified by Goodman (1985), writing about the twentieth anniversary,
as having overseen the birth of the IB. A further significant event was the curriculum
meeting in Sevres in 1967 that saw the seven-point scale developed, and where a six-year

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experimental period was announced, to last 19701976. Peterson (1972a, 31) implied the
year 1970 saw the birth, when he remarks on how one girl did her first year in Tehran and
the second in Copenhagen.
However, an arguably more practical date for the birth would be June 1967, the point
at which the experiment moved into trial mode proper. Moreover, it now moved beyond the
classrooms of the International School of Geneva, and beyond just the examination of
Contemporary History. A total of 147 students were entered for history and geography at
Geneva, whilst students at The Atlantic College undertook an examination in Latin and
Physics (Hill 2004a).
The year 1967 is therefore given by this writer as the starting point for an examination
of the geographical growth of this experiment in international education (Peterson 1972a),
despite the fact that much fanfare will undoubtedly occur in 2008, the 40th anniversary of
the IBO. The year 1968 was certainly significant, and seven schools entered 349 students
for this, the second of four trial exams. The main two schools still offered 75% of the overall
entrants, but the experiment finally had some sort of scale beyond just the pioneers, and
more significantly, beyond merely Northern Europe.
The global spread of the IBDP
The IBDP has undergone little critical analysis, and as shown in this paper, much of the
material concerning it is now rather dated. One of the most striking biases is that its global
presence is often over-exaggerated. Fox (1998a) commented that it has made greater inroads
into some countries than others but little attention has been given to the nature of reasons
behind this. The IBO has always been concerned about the regional disparity of its Diploma
Programme and has constantly questioned its own claim to internationality. As far back as
the early 1960s the International School of Geneva was dispatching missionaries around
the world. In January 1964 one teacher had been funded by a UNESCO grant to visit a
school in Tehran. In June 1965, no less than 16 teachers were dispatched from Geneva to
visit schools in Canada and the US (Hill 2006a). The meeting in Paris, April 1974, which
formally endorsed the IBDP experiment, recommended its geographical expansion, beyond
the dozen or so countries who had hitherto been involved, and into developing countries.
By 1980 almost half of the 70 schools worldwide were located in Europe. There was
concern that the IBDP was beginning to be perceived as Euro-centred and several meetings
occurred. A seminar was convened in Singapore, and the issue of Euro-bias of certain
subjects was tackled at the 1982 Standing Conference of Heads in New York (Fox 1998a).
Interestingly, Singapore now has 13 IBDP schools. Also in 1982, a conference was held at
Tsukuba University in Japan to try to promote the programme in that country. Today there
are 11 IBDP schools there. Blackburn (1983) reported on the increasing interest in the
IBDP in developing countries but highlighted several barriers, and in 1984 a seminar took
place in Nairobi to deal with these issues. At this time there were about 150 IBDP schools
worldwide.
Hayden and Thompson (2000, 9) described the IBO as a burgeoning political global
player, and the organisation now views itself as a global player (Hill 2005b, 33). However,
the issue of global discrepancy has in fact worsened since the 1980s. The 23 countries identified by the UN Human Development Report 2005 as having a low human development,
account for only 29 IBDP schools. Almost a quarter of these are in one country, Kenya,
whilst the biggest economies in Africa Nigeria and South Africa have just two IB school
each. A mere 31 schools are found in Africa (2% of world total), compared to the 616 in the
US (35% of world total).

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Bagnall (1994) referred to the IBDP as a world movement, whilst Pound (2005, 5)
more recently talked of it gaining currency around the world. At a macro-level this is true,
and the programme is now on offer in 128 countries. However, closer scrutiny reveals a
different picture. Thirty-eight countries have a single IBDP school, whilst in a further
25 nations there are only two. Only 30 countries have more than 10 IBDP schools. Exactly
two-thirds of all IBDP schools are located in the top ten countries. In ranked order, these
are: US, UK, Canada, Australia, Mexico, India, Spain, Argentina, Sweden, and China.
Seventy-eight percent of schools entered candidates for the May (northern hemispherebased) examination in 2006, rather than the November (southern hemisphere) one, reflecting
the regional disparity. Fifty-five percent of all IBDP schools are now located in HampdenTurner and Trompenaars (1997) seven cultures of capitalism: US, UK, Sweden, Japan,
Netherlands, France, and Germany. Twenty-five years ago, commentators began to talk of
the growing popularity of the programme around the world (e.g., Nicol 1982; Blackburn
1983), yet today 44% of all IBDP schools are located in North America. This paper now
analyses the regional growth.
The regional growth of the IBDP
The IB is currently organised into four regions, although there is a proposal to reduce this
to three in the near future. The Latin American region (IBLA) now has 241 schools offering
the IBDP (11% of the world total). Growth here was initially a very slow process, despite
the fact that Chile had been the first country in the world to legally recognise the fledgling
IB experiment in the late 1960s, and the British School Montevideo was part of the 1969
examination cohort. The first IB school in Argentina appeared in 1973, and although this
country now has the fifth largest IBDP grouping worldwide (43 schools), the initial years
saw few inroads being made. The IBO began a marketing tour of Latin America in June
1978 with the aim of creating a school in each capital city. The tour was not a success and
even by the time the IBO had established a regional office in Buenos Aires in 1982, there
were only 15 IB schools in the region, in eight different countries. However, Stoyle (1986)
was enthusiastic about the prospects for future growth of the IB in the region and his
optimism was proved correct, certainly in Argentina.
Until 1980 the rate of expansion in Canada was greater than in the US. Spahn (2001)
offers two possible reasons for this, stating that Canada had no Advanced Placement (AP)
examination system, plus Canada had a role model in the form of the Lester B. Pearson
(United World College) in Toronto. New Yorks Francis Lewis School became in 1976 the
first American high school to offer the IBDP and soon Gilbert (1982) was reporting on the
growing popularity of the examination in the US and Canada. Savage (1982) was reporting
at this time that the IBDP was more challenging than the AP programme. In 1980 the US
had only 22 schools offering it, but two decades later this had expanded to 268. This was
quite surprising in a way, as the IB initially underwent two false trails in the US (Spahn
2001). Firstly, the Ivy League preparatory schools failed to come onboard and secondly the
body of community schools offering the Associate of Arts failed to take up the examination.
In the end, it was the public schools that enthusiastically embarked upon the IBDP, especially
the magnet schools searching for a unique marketing position. A significant factor in the US
was the lack of a uniformly national curriculum, which provided a great deal of flexibility.
Spahn (2001, 117) ends his book positively by stating that the IBDP has found its place in
the United States, and he states that factors there point towards a surge in the growth of
the programme. His optimism has been proven correct, and at the time of writing (early
September 2008) there are 616 schools in the US, five times more than in any other country.

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A key spur to growth in the US was the publication by the National Commission on
Excellence in Education of The Nation at Risk in 1983, which advocated a curriculum
similar to the IB. The same year, a critical report on secondary education in the US singled
out the IB as a model of quality (Boyer 1983). By 1997, 215 public high schools in the US
and Canada had adopted the IBDP. The number of US students undertaking the IB
programmes rose 75% during 20002005, and the number of schools in the IBNA region
rose from 398 to 582, although a total of 138 US schools have abandoned it since 1975,
mainly through a lack of parental interest (Spahn 2001). Walker (2002) stated that 92% of
the IB World Schools in the US are state-funded, which is very different from many other
parts of the world where the IBDP has a large private education following. It is significant
enough to note that the IBNA region in September 2008 had a total of 1194 IB World
Schools, exactly half of the world total.
The number of IBDP schools in the IB Africa/Europe/Middle East (IBAEM) region has
grown slightly less over the past seven years than in the IBNA region, with the universe
rising from 265 schools to 628. There had been only 97 schools in 1990. There were 73
schools worldwide when the International School Moshi (Tanzania) in 1980 emerged as the
first IBDP School in Africa. The International School of London became in 1976 the first
to offer the IBDP in England, and the number of schools there has more than trebled over
the last five years, from 43 in January 2002 to 137 in September 2008. This makes it by far
the biggest grouping in the region, followed by Spain with 44 schools and Sweden with 31.
England and Wales should see future growth, given that the British government announced
in November 2006 that each Local Authority would have one IB school by 2010, although
the Gordon Brown administration stated in May 2008 that this will not be compulsory.
The IB Asia-Pacific (IBAP) region has not undergone the same sort of exponential
growth of the other regions. Fox (1998a, 74) commented that there had been little interest
in the IBDP, until a spurt of growth in the late 1990s in Australia especially. The first IBDP
school here had appeared in 1979. The curriculum was certainly very slow to take-off in this
region, and there were only 33 schools offering it in 1990. The 100-mark was not reached
until 2002. However, 20032005 saw an extra 50 adopt the curriculum. This can partly be
explained by the fact there are now at least 100 international schools in Thailand
compared to just five in 1991 (Hanchanlash 2004). The first school in India to offer the
IBDP appeared in 1976, the first in Hong Kong in 1988, and the first in China in 1991.
Reasons for the regional disparity
The reasons for the regional disparity require scholarly confirmation but one reason
concerns the content of the IBDP curriculum. Drone (1988) argued the need to introduce a
greater African cultural perspective into the Euro-centric curriculum, and offered a plan
for localising the IBDP by incorporating the Kenyan A Level curriculum. Secondly, Hill
(2006a) explicitly states the cost of the IBDP is a factor hindering its spread in developing
countries. It has always been an expensive examination to adopt, in comparison to alternative curricula, and the story behind this is interesting. The financial position was so dire in
1976 that Alec Peterson wrote to schools stating that unless $130,000 was raised, the IB
project would be closed down (Hill 2006a). A meeting of nine school heads was convened.
Here, Peterson suggested schools contribute an annual subscription of 2000 CHF, but the
meeting voted for it being five times higher. The IBO is still heavily dependent on this hefty
annual subscription, as well as the examination fees.
Three high schools in Beaufort County District, South Carolina, offer the IBDP. Of the
districts 5400 high school students in 2004, only 60 received an IB diploma, yet it cost

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$125,000 to offer the courses (Chmelynski 2004). Spahns (2001) study of why schools in
the US had dropped the IBDP, found that only 12% had found it too costly; however, this
is likely to be a bigger issue in some other countries. The cost of sending teachers on
training conferences is another major issue. The 2007 Diploma-level conferences (in
English) for the IBAEM region were mainly held mainly in Europe, the main sessions being
in Greece, although schools in Africa had the chance to send delegates to Ghana.
A further factor involves geopolitics, a topic worthy of its own study. Some parts of
Europe have reported little growth. France, for example, despite offering one of the first
schools in the 1969 trial exam, today has only a dozen IBDP participants. This is explained
by the dislike of the seemingly elitist programme by the Mitterrand governments of the
1980s (Bagnall 1994). Interestingly, the Republic of Ireland still has just one IB school,
despite its strong record of inward investment during the 1990s (Breathnach, 1998). The
quest to de-ideologize (Fox 1998a, 72) education in some of the former Eastern European
countries was seen as a potential spur to growth. The Slovenian government in 1990 gave
funding to two public schools to offer the IBDP as an experiment, but these remain the only
ones in Slovenia. Fox (1998a) also implies that Bulgaria could be a potential future source
of growth, yet here there remain only four schools.
Political barriers to potential growth certainly still exist within individual countries. A
joint conference in Belgium, attended by 19 member countries of the Commission of the
European Communities, and the Council for Cultural Cooperation of the Council of Europe,
recommended that the IBDP be extended to state-funded schools (Fox 1998a). However,
Buckheit (1995) reported on some of the obstacles to the acceptance of the IBDP by German
state governments for German nationals studying in their home country.
A last significant factor affecting regional growth is that the IBDP model has the potential to be cloned or adapted. Sen (2001) referring to Turkey, states that the IBDP has more
potential to be nationalised than adopted. The committee for the Coordination of Education
and Culture in Central America, made up of Education Ministers from the Central American
countries, has shown interest in establishing a Central American Baccalaureate modelled on
the IB (Lloyd 2004). This might help explain the relative dearth of IBDP schools in this
region of the world. Another area of the world awaiting curriculum developments is England
and Wales, where the A Level examination has come under attack over recent years. There
has been no major movement towards the IBDP examination, although at least 100 elite
English independent schools in England, including Eton, plus at least 20 state-funded
schools are reported ready to abandon A levels for the Pre-U, an alternative system examined
by CIE, to begin in September 2008 (Clark 2006). This course bears all the hallmarks of a
pseudo-IBDP. The Welsh national assembly began a four-year pilot Welsh baccalaureate in
19 colleges in 2003, and this may have tempered movement towards the IB.
The implications of the regional disparity
There are three striking features about the global growth of the IBDP. The most significant
aspect has been its take-off in the US over the past 30 years, from the six schools offering
it in 1977 to the present-day 616. The first ones involved had been the cadre of ideologydriven schools, such as UNIS and the Washington International School, which offered a
show-case for the programme. The IBDP has since attracted many market-driven schools,
such as magnet schools seeking a marketing niche or schools dissatisfied with the rigour of
the AP examination. Interestingly, the universe of MYP schools is even more skewed
towards North America. Although the MYP is found in 69 countries, 60% of schools are
found in the US and Canada. This discrepancy requires scholarly investigation, and this

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would now be viable, as the programme enters its fourteenth year. In total, just over 1200
(50%) of the branded IB World Schools are now located in the US and Canada, which
clearly undermines the notion of World Schools in a global sense. The initial Eurocentric
reality of the IBDP has become a North American one.
By far the most disappointing aspect of the growth of the IBDP concerns Africa. This
is not due to deliberate neglect and the lack of provision there requires further investigation. As far back as July 1964, the head of the International School of Geneva, accompanied by the head of the primary section, undertook a marketing tour of at least three
African countries (Hill 2006a). Two decades later Goodman (1985) was optimistically
asserting that the sub-Saharan countries of Africa offered much scope for the establishing
of IBDP schools yet the programme has made little impact there over the last 20 years.
Half the continent (23 countries) remains an IBDP wilderness, whilst 12 African countries
there have only one school. Fox (1998a) described the presence in Africa as minimal
and a decade later this is strikingly true. This seems surprising, to an extent, as the IBDP
could be viewed as offering a useful alternative for countries keen to escape a colonial
examination system. The answer needs investigation, but might revolve around the
fact that African assessment of pre-independence schooling is, on the whole, negative
(Woolman 2001). Here lies a potential problem with the IBDP and its focus on western/
European individualistic values.
It is not clear what effect the North American dominance is having on the perception of
the IBDP in other countries, including in Africa, or if it is leading to a certain degree of bias
in terms of syllabus content and assessment criteria. It has recently been critically pointed
out that 62% of students, who undertook the May 2005 History examination, sat the History
of the Americas paper. Only 0.7% did the History of Africa one (Lewis 2006). This regional
disparity cannot be deemed as healthy and does require action. It is certainly ironic, given
the fact that much of the original impetus behind the IBDP came from the desire of the
history teachers in Geneva to offer a more contemporary and globalised curriculum. The
IBDP in this context has turned full circle. Another noticeable effect is that the disparity
between the numbers of students taking the IBDP examination in the three languages has
widened. In the May 1990 exam, 89% of candidates took the exam in English, 8% in
Spanish, and 3% in French. In May 2006, the Spanish version attracted 11% of candidates
but the French one had only 1.3% of candidates, presumably making the programme in that
language economically unviable.
The IBO is presently piloting the IB Open International College, allowing students of
the future to study online, and this could be a source for potential growth in remote areas.
If this were to attract schools in sub-Saharan Africa it might also increase the Frenchlanguage contingency. The pre-pilot project involved 11 students from the USA, Ecuador
and Brazil who studied standard-level economics online over two years, taught by a teacher
based in Brazil. The first students proper will start in September 2008, followed by a fouryear pilot phase (Bollington and Fairbrother 2006).
A second striking feature is the ad hoc and unplanned nature of growth over the past 40
years. The geographical spread of the IBDP has relied heavily upon the marketing work of
the regional offices and key protagonists. The involvement of the first two schools in the
first trial exams of 1967 is easy to explain. However, the inclusion the year after of schools
from New York, Beirut, Tehran, Copenhagen, and Manchester (England) is more difficult,
and emphasises the rather random nature of the geographical spread. The next year, schools
came on board from as diverse a field as Germany, France, Nigeria, Uruguay, and Chile.
There were at least four different reasons for this, emphasising the fact that the growth
of the IBDP has never followed a formal plan. Firstly, some of the schools were with the

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International Schools Association (ISA), and its US offshoot, the International Schools
Services, which had appeared in 1955. Some, such as the Manchester one, were probably
involved with the 1949 UNESCO convened CIS initiative. Personal contacts are also an
important explanation, and reflect the rather humble origins of the IB. The spreading of
the IBDP has always relied heavily upon the work of individuals such as Gilbert Nicol
who became IBNA General Director in 1977, and Bob Leach, the head of humanities at
the International School of Geneva, who visited schools in Asia, Africa and Europe in
19611962.
Word-of-mouth promotion has always been important. The Montevideo school came on
board through the head, Peter Stoyle, having studied at Oxford under the tutorage of Alec
Peterson. Stoyle later became the regional director of IBLA and was responsible for much
growth in that region. Fourthly, the marketing road-shows involving numerous teachers
from the International School of Geneva 19621965 will have led to contact with interested
schools. The marketing of the IBDP has always been a rather informal affair and there does
seem to be a need for a more coherent system. The IBO advertised for a Development
Officer in November 2005 and the post has been taken up; however the role is more about
fundraising rather than marketing. More formal fundraising will at least mitigate the need
to raise the fees and this might be a useful step forward for engaging with less affluent
schools.
A third striking feature concerns the fact that in 60 countries worldwide there are
only one or two schools offering the IBDP (correct in April 2007). In a further 17 countries there are fewer than five schools. In other words, the IBDP School occupies a
largely monopolistic position in a majority of countries. Even countries with a bigger
body have much nationwide disparity. In Sweden, for example, there are currently 31
IBDP schools, yet spread across 21 cities. These schools have an enormous marketing
advantage.
This could be deemed as bad, if one were to agree that competition improves the quality
of provision of a product. The IBDP relies heavily on its appearance as a quality-assured
product, conforming to consistent standards throughout the world. Cambridge and Thompson
(2001) identify this as the Big Mac and Coke dimension of international education.
Secondly, it adds to the appearance that the IBDP is an elite programme of study. This has
always been a worry, and even 35 years ago Alec Peterson was asking Is the IB an elitist
project? (Peterson 1972b, 1). In a sense, of course, this is what the school pays for. The
IBDP is a costly franchise for a school to purchase and there is a case for it being an exclusively operated product. The state-funded Harrogate Grammar School in northern England
spent 30,000 setting up the IBDP and training teachers in 2004, and described it as more
expensive than the A Level examination system which it also offers (Chilvers 2004).
However, it makes the school the only one in the region to be offering the programme, and
this might be worth the financial outlay.
Herein lies a complex dilemma. The IBO Director General in 2003 stated that international education had a realistic target of around 100 million students (Walker, 2003, 9),
and was keen to enter a Stage of Influence. Walker was not meaning that this many
students would be undertaking the IB as such, but was implying that the presence of the
programmes could set an example and transform national curricula. The globalisation literature recognises this as the third way, the transformationalist approach. It is difficult to
see how this can be achieved through the actions of a single school, a situation found in 38
countries. Of course, any movement towards a greater body of schools in these countries
could hinder future growth. Schools might be reluctant to buy into the franchise if this
involves competition with others in the area, or across the country.

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Overall conclusions
The IBDP faces a series of complex, and quite crucial, issues as it approaches its fortieth
year of existence. The road so far has been one of largely unhindered and continuous
expansion, yet in an uncontrolled and ad hoc manner, resulting in a great deal of regional
disparity. This can be viewed as symptomatic of the development of international education in general, and one key challenge emerging is the formation of an Alliance for International Education (Bunnell 2006), to provide a platform for greater structure. Two sets
of IBDP schools have appeared. One set operates in a relatively crowded field, although
the level of competition is not altogether clear and requires analysis. Another set of
schools, spanning almost 80 countries, operates in an almost exclusively monopolistic
situation. Both sets of circumstances pose a challenge for quality-assurance provision.
The issue of scant activity in Africa remains a problem and although online provision
may create the breakthrough in remote areas, this aspect of activity is still four years
away from reality.
Interestingly, there are signs that the future path may be rockier than it has been hitherto.
The IBDP has recently come under fire (Yates 2006) in the US for its perceived lack of
ethical and religious content, and for being perceived as un-American (Walters 2006). There
was uproar in March 2006 when a school in Pittsburgh decided to drop it. One of the UK
Governments flagship Academy Schools dropped the programme in March 2007, citing it
as an academically demanding experiment that failed (Green 2007). Also in England, the
University and College Union (UCU) have denounced the IB programmes as elitist and
divisive (UCU 2006). Head teachers in England have also recently attacked the IBDP as
being overvalued against the A Level examination system (Blair 2007).
The implication of this is that perhaps the IBO ought to consider undertaking a more
formal and structured public relations role, and should also critically consider the growing
global imbalance. Even during the time that this author was writing this paper, the global
percentage of IBDP schools in the US had risen from 33% to 35%. The global growth of
the IBDP has always seemingly been a rather casual and ad hoc affair, left largely to chance.
The time seems ripe for a different approach.

Notes on contributor
Tristan Bunnell is head of economics at Copenhagen International School. He obtained a doctorate
in the categorisation of international schools from the University of Southampton in 2003.

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