THE BPT STORY
How BPT all started and how it has grown to enable students’ success around the world.
As Executive Director of British Private Tuition (BPT), I welcome all current and prospective clients to our new website.
I believe that personal stories are important, not only because people want to know that a business or a website is more than just another anonymous company, that it has a real human face, but also so that clients and students can glean something of the values and qualities that underpin a business – and decide if it is for them.
The relevant part of my story starts in 2015 when I set up BPT, initially focused on Southeast and East Asia, and tapping into the rapidly growing demand for first class British-focused private tuition in the region. Over the last eight years, however, BPT’s client base has grown, and we have taught students across the world, including in the UK, US, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Russia, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Thailand and the UAE.
Since 2015, I have assembled a team of tutors, who are all high-flying academics in their own right, but also expert teachers. For it is one thing to know one's subject inside out; but it is quite another to possess the empathy and communication skills to be able to impart that knowledge to others. Indeed, I am proud that our team of exclusively Oxbridge tutors has undergone careful and rigorous selection: a CV-vetting process, an intensive interview, and ongoing communication, guidance and mentoring on my part. I believe that the calibre of our tutors is unique, and I have full confidence that you will agree once you begin learning with our expert BPT tutors.
BPT not only provides expert academic tuition, in a range of subjects, online and in person, but also advises on entrance applications to top schools and universities in the UK and other English-speaking countries. BPT has guided students from around the world to top grades in school and public exams, and sent children to illustrious schools, including Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Sevenoaks, St Paul’s, Westminster, Wellington, Wycombe Abbey, Cheltenham Ladies College, Dulwich and King’s College Wimbledon – some on prestigious academic scholarships.
As to how my journey into academic tuition began and how I ended up in Southeast Asia … I myself won an academic scholarship to Winchester College, before going on to Oxford University to study Classics, and had a love of learning instilled in me from this pre-eminent education which I feel very fortunate to have experienced.
After graduating in 2001, I began my career as an academic tutor while at law school in London. After qualifying as a lawyer, I trained and worked in corporate finance law, first at a “magic circle” law firm, then at a top Wall Street firm throughout the 2008 global financial crash.
Deciding that City law wasn’t for me, I shuffled the pack, moving to Southeast Asia and working as a human rights researcher and legal consultant, in Burma, Cambodia and Thailand, on a broad range of legal, political and human rights issues, including rule of law, corruption, geopolitics, elections, freedom of expression and political prisoners.
I continued the academic tuition while working in Southeast Asia, tutoring freelance for a number of years. However, while drafting a briefing note on the upcoming Burma elections, in between tutorials for the son of an African president, a kindly and curious Moroccan chef approached me in the servants quarters and asked why I didn’t do a little bit less human rights work and a lot more tutoring … and so this casual question prompted another major life change …
Since this African epiphany, I have set myself the challenge of helping all BPT students to strive for academic excellence and to develop a love of learning. I hope that you will join us on your own academic journey. In the meantime, I and all the tutors at BPT wish you all the best with your studies!
Yours sincerely,
Robert Finch
BPT Executive Director