BRITISH education company Cognita announced on Wednesday that it has bought over the popular Australian International School in Singapore (AISS).

The company owns and runs several independent schools in the United Kingdom.

AISS was started in 1993 by a group of Australian and Singapore businessmen to provide education to children of Australian families here.

Over the years, it has grown its enrolment to 1,800 students. It's currently expanding its campus in Lorong Chuan and aims to offer another 900 places next year.

Cognita's chairman Chris Woodhead said the school was the group's first acquisition outside of the UK. The group has 37 schools in the UK catering to more than 9,000 students.

Mr Woodhead, who was a former UK chief inspector of schools, said the company was interested in growing its presence further in Singapore. Describing the AISS as a 'highly successful one', he said that it has earned a solid reputation and achieved success through its academic results and its introduction of International Baccalaureate programmes.

He added that he had met with the students' parents on Tuesday to assure them that the ethos and culture of the school will not change. There would also be no changes in the management or the teaching staff.

Singapore has set the target of being a 'global schoolhouse' capable of pulling in 150,000 foreign students by 2015.

Currently, there are 80,000 such students here, just over half the target.

Recently, several of the 40 international schools that cater to the expatriate population reported a shortage of places because of the growing number of foreigners here.