Cambridge University's own 2025 admissions data shows Singapore is the strongest Cambridge pipeline outside the UK. Raffles Institution recorded 44 offers — the most of any school apply centre in the world apart from the UK and Cambridge's own internal centre. Three Singapore schools sit inside the global top 15.
Source: Cambridge University, “Applications, Offers and Acceptances by UCAS Apply Centre 2025” (2025 admissions cycle, for October 2025 entry).
The World's Top 10 School Apply Centres, by Offers
Cambridge's dataset also includes a centre called “University of Cambridge Foundation Year Programme” — that is Cambridge's own internal apply centre, not a school, so it is excluded from the school rankings below. With it excluded, Raffles Institution is the #1 school apply centre in the world by offers, and NUS High is joint 7th worldwide, tied with London's Westminster School.
| Rank | Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raffles InstitutionSingapore · Other and Overseas | 113 | 44 | 33 |
| 2 | Tiffin SchoolUK · Maintained | 86 | 39 | 32 |
| 3 | Colchester Royal Grammar SchoolUK · Maintained | 71 | 37 | 32 |
| 4 | Brampton Manor AcademyUK · Maintained | 191 | 35 | 27 |
| 5 | Queen Elizabeth's School, BarnetUK · Maintained | 75 | 34 | 21 |
| 6 | Shenzhen College of International EducationChina · Other and Overseas | 122 | 33 | 31 |
| =7 | NUS High SchoolSingapore · Other and Overseas | 58 | 29 | 23 |
| =7 | Westminster SchoolUK · Independent | 55 | 29 | 25 |
| =9 | Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form CollegeUK · Maintained | 97 | 28 | 23 |
| =9 | Brighton CollegeUK · Independent | 73 | 28 | 26 |
Ranked by offers among the 3,830 apply centres, excluding Cambridge's own internal Foundation Year Programme centre (51 apps / 50 offers). Source: Cambridge University Apply Centre 2025 report.
Just outside the top 10
A third Singapore school makes the world's top 15
Hwa Chong Institution is joint roughly 15th worldwide with 25 offers from 86 applications (22 acceptances) — putting three Singapore schools inside the world's top 15 school apply centres by offers. Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) recorded 15 offers from 62 applications, and — unusually — every one of those 15 offers converted into an acceptance.
Singapore's Big Four, Head to Head
Four Singapore apply centres cleared 60+ applications in the 2025 cycle. Their success rate — offers divided by applications — is only meaningful where both numbers are exact (above 5), which is the case for all four below.
A Cambridge offer still comes with grade conditions attached. The acceptances column counts the students who met those conditions and took up their place — when comparing schools, that is the number to watch.
Every Big Four school lost some offer-holders on the way to acceptance — Raffles Institution's 44 offers became 33 acceptances, NUS High's 29 became 23, and Hwa Chong's 25 became 22. ACS (Independent) is the outlier: all 15 of its offers converted, a 100% offer-to-acceptance rate at that scale.
Every Singapore apply centre in the 2025 data
These tables cover every apply centre physically located in Singapore that appears in Cambridge's 2025 report — grouped into junior colleges & MOE-track schools, polytechnics, and private & international schools, each sorted by offers, then applications. JC names link to their SGSchoolKaki profiles.
Junior colleges & MOE-track schools
| Apply Centre | Type | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raffles Institution (RI) | JC · IP | 113 | 44 | 33 |
| NUS High School | Specialised | 58 | 29 | 23 |
| Hwa Chong Institution | JC · IP | 86 | 25 | 22 |
| Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) | Independent · IB | 62 | 15 | 15 |
| Eunoia Junior College | JC | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| National Junior College | JC | 10 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Dunman High School | IP | 9 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| School of the Arts (SOTA) | Specialised | 8 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Temasek Junior College | JC | 7 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Victoria Junior College | JC | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Nanyang Junior College | JC | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Polytechnics
| Apply Centre | Type | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore Polytechnic | Poly | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Private & international schools
| Apply Centre | Type | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore American School | International | 13 | 6 | 6 |
| Tanglin Trust School | International | 20 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| UWC South East Asia, Dover Campus | International | 18 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Hwa Chong International School | Private | 15 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Dulwich College (Singapore) | International | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| ACS (International) | Private · IB | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| SJI International | Private · IB | 13 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Global Indian International School | International | ≤5 | ≤5 | 0 |
| Nexus International School (Singapore) | International | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
The rest of the field
Also applied, no offers recorded (≤5 applicants each)
Junior colleges & MOE-track
Polytechnic
Private & international
Each centre above recorded five or fewer applications and zero offers through its own UCAS centre in the 2025 cycle. A school missing from this page simply had no applications through its own apply centre — it does not mean its students got zero offers, since students can and do apply to Cambridge independently.
Beyond Singapore: How the Rest of the World Compares
Reading the world outside the UK region by region shows just how unusual Singapore's concentration is. Only mainland China produces an apply centre in Raffles Institution's volume range — everywhere else, even the leading centre typically sits at or near the data's suppression floor.
Malaysia
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kolej Yayasan UEM | 45 | 8 | 8 |
| Sunway College | 42 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Taylor's Malaysia | 16 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Garden International School | 11 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Kolej Yayasan UEM is Malaysia's clear leader with 8 offers from 45 applications, all 8 converting to acceptances. Every other Malaysian centre sits at the ≤5 suppression floor.
Hong Kong
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Paul's Co-Educational College | 33 | 11 | 11 |
| Chinese International School | 17 | 8 | ≤5 |
| Harrow International School, Hong Kong | 25 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| German Swiss International School | 16 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Hong Kong International School | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
St Paul's Co-Educational College leads Hong Kong with a clean 11-for-11 offer-to-acceptance record. Chinese International School's 8 offers from 17 applications is the region's next strongest exact figure.
Mainland China
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shenzhen College of International Education | 122 | 33 | 31 |
| Shanghai Guanghua College | 125 | 27 | 25 |
| Ulink College of Shanghai | 75 | 10 | 9 |
| Dipont Education Management Group | 84 | 9 | 6 |
| Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy | 30 | 8 | 6 |
Mainland China is the only region with application volumes rivalling Singapore's biggest centres. Shenzhen College of International Education's 122 applications is even higher than Raffles Institution's 113, but it converted fewer of them into offers — 33, placing it 6th worldwide among schools versus RI's 44 in 1st.
India
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dhirubhai Ambani International School | 8 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| British School, New Delhi | 6 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| The International School Bangalore (TISB) | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| The Doon School | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
India's leading centres all sit at the ≤5 suppression floor for offers — the exact figures cannot be resolved further from this report alone.
🌏 Thailand, Vietnam & Indonesia
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shrewsbury International School, Thailand | 14 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Harrow International School, Bangkok | 12 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| British International School, Ho Chi Minh City | 6 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Shrewsbury International School Thailand leads the region on applications, but like every other Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian centre, its offers figure is suppressed at ≤5.
Australia & New Zealand
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland Grammar SchoolNew Zealand | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| North Sydney Boys High SchoolAustralia | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Sydney Grammar SchoolAustralia | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Brisbane State High SchoolAustralia | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Every leading Australian and New Zealand centre sits at the ≤5 suppression floor. This likely understates the true number of Australian and Kiwi Cambridge students — many apply individually rather than through a school-run UCAS Apply Centre, so their applications simply do not appear attributed to a school in this dataset.
Europe
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| International School of Geneva, La ChataigneraieSwitzerland | 10 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Ecole Jeannine Manuel, ParisFrance | 8 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| European School of Brussels IIIBelgium | 8 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Vienna International SchoolAustria | 7 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Continental Europe's 142 named international-school centres are almost entirely clustered at the ≤5 floor for offers, spread across Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, and beyond.
🌍 Middle East
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai CollegeUAE | 16 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Doha CollegeQatar | 9 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Dubai International AcademyUAE | 8 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Dubai College leads a 56-centre Middle East field, but again the offers figure cannot be resolved below the ≤5 suppression floor.
🌎 The Americas
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen's UniversityCanada | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Yale UniversityUSA | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Glenlyon Norfolk SchoolCanada | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Greengates SchoolMexico | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
Across 52 named centres in North and South America, none recorded an exact offers figure above 5 — even household names like Phillips Exeter Academy and Groton School show 5 applications and 0 recorded offers through their own centre.
🌏 Japan, Korea & Taiwan
| Apply Centre | Apps | Offers | Acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| The British School in TokyoJapan | 10 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| K. International School TokyoJapan | 6 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Korea International School JejuSouth Korea | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
| Taipei European SchoolTaiwan | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 |
The British School in Tokyo leads a 26-centre Japan/Korea/Taiwan field with 10 applications, but like every centre in the region, its offers figure is capped at the ≤5 suppression floor.
How to Read This Data
- Suppression rule:Cambridge's published report states that raw figures under 5 are reported as “5”, except true zeros. Wherever this article shows “≤5”, the real number is somewhere between 1 and 5 — never treat it as exact, and never sum suppressed values into a precise total.
- Apply-centre caveat:this data counts applications submitted through each school's own UCAS Apply Centre. Students who apply independently are not attributed to their school. Nationality is not recorded, so international-school centres in Singapore, Malaysia, China and elsewhere include students of many nationalities, not only citizens of that country.
- Offers vs acceptances: an offer is mostly conditional on final exam results; an acceptance is a student who met the conditions and took up the place. Both columns matter — a school with many offers but few acceptances tells a different story from one where nearly every offer converts.
- Foundation Year exclusion:the “University of Cambridge Foundation Year Programme” apply centre (51 applications, 50 offers) is Cambridge's own internal centre, not a school, so it is excluded from every school ranking in this article.
- Cycle and source:all figures are from the 2025 admissions cycle (October 2025 entry), taken directly from Cambridge University's official “Applications, Offers and Acceptances by UCAS Apply Centre 2025” report (3,830 apply centres). No number in this article comes from any other source.
What This Means for Singapore Parents
The headline number — Raffles Institution's 44 offers — is a school-level count, not a guarantee for any individual student. Cambridge admission still comes down to the same things it always has: subject-specific academic performance, the pre-interview assessment for many courses, and the interview itself. A strong Cambridge pipeline at a school reflects a large, academically strong applicant pool applying every year, not a lowered bar.
For JC and IP students weighing where to apply, the practical takeaway is unglamorous but true: choose the school that fits your learning style and strengths, then let the numbers in this article set realistic expectations about how competitive a Cambridge application really is — even from Singapore's strongest feeder schools.
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Raffles Institution School Profile
Programmes, CCAs, and admission routes at Singapore's top Cambridge feeder school.
Hwa Chong Institution School Profile
Programmes, CCAs, and admission routes at Singapore's third-strongest Cambridge feeder.
NUS High School Profile
Singapore's highest Cambridge success rate (50%) among the four largest apply centres.
Browse All Singapore Universities
NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, SIT, SUSS, UniSIM — profiles, courses, and campus information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Singapore school got the most Cambridge offers in 2025?
Raffles Institution recorded 44 offers from 113 applications through its own UCAS apply centre in the 2025 admissions cycle (for October 2025 entry) — the most of any school-run apply centre in the world outside Cambridge's own internal Foundation Year Programme centre. 33 of those 44 offers converted into acceptances.
What is NUS High School's Cambridge success rate?
NUS High recorded 29 offers from 58 applications — a 50.0% offer rate, the highest among the four largest Singapore apply centres. 23 of the 29 offers converted into acceptances.
Why do offers and acceptances differ in this data?
A Cambridge offer is typically conditional on final exam grades; an acceptance is a student who met those conditions and firmly took up the place. Some offer-holders don't meet conditions, and some accept a place elsewhere instead — Raffles Institution's 44 offers became 33 acceptances, for example.
Does applying through my school's UCAS centre affect my Cambridge chances?
This data only counts applications submitted through a school's own UCAS Apply Centre. Students who apply independently, or whose school doesn't operate its own centre, are not attributed to that school here — so a school's absence, or a low count, does not necessarily reflect its individual students' chances.
How does Singapore compare to other countries for Cambridge offers?
Singapore is the strongest non-UK pipeline in the data, outperformed only by Shenzhen College of International Education in mainland China — the one overseas school anywhere near Raffles Institution's application volume. Most other countries' leading apply centres recorded five or fewer offers each, the floor at which Cambridge suppresses exact figures.
What data is this analysis based on, and what does "≤5" mean?
This is a direct analysis of Cambridge University's official "Applications, Offers and Acceptances by UCAS Apply Centre 2025" report, covering 3,830 apply centres worldwide. Cambridge suppresses any raw figure under 5 by reporting it as "5" (except true zeros) to protect anonymity, so wherever this article shows "≤5", the real number could be anywhere from 1 to 5 and cannot be treated as exact.
The bottom line
Singapore is, by a wide margin, the strongest Cambridge pipeline outside the United Kingdom — Raffles Institution ranks #1 in the world for offers among all non-UK schools, and three Singapore schools sit inside the global top 15. But the data also carries an honest caveat: it counts school apply centres, not individual students, and it says nothing about how any one applicant will fare. Use it as context on how competitive the system is — not as a guarantee, or a ranking of any child's chances.
Source
University of Cambridge — “Applications, Offers and Acceptances by UCAS Apply Centre 2025” — official 2025 admissions cycle data, all 3,830 apply centres. Every figure in this article is drawn directly from this report.