GLOBAL: Huge expansion in overseas campuses

A rapidly growing number of universities across the world are establishing branch campuses in other countries. In fact, the number has almost doubled to 162 in the past three years alone and has jumped eight-fold since 2002. Although the US continues to dominate with its offshore campuses scattered around the globe, more countries have become involved as hosts and providers.

A report by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education* says that among the host countries, the United Arab Emirates is the clear leader, hosting a quarter of all international branch campuses in the world.

The report says that of the existing campuses, only 35 were operating before 1999. Since September 2006, at least 49 new campuses have been established - 30% of the current total - with three new ones to be opened soon. In the same period, five international branch campuses have closed.

As the report says, there is no global consensus as to what constitutes a branch campus but the Observatory includes those that are an off-shore operation of a university, operated by that institution or through a joint-venture partner, and the students who complete the course abroad are awarded a degree by the university.

Curiously, the global directions of branch campus establishment have started to change: three years ago, north to south offshore campus development was clearly dominating as US universities looked south. But recent growth has occurred north-to-north and particularly south-to-south, the latter indicating developing countries are slowly but increasingly establishing their own branch campuses abroad.

Prepared by Rosa FJ Becker, a senior researcher with the Observatory, the report says the international branch campus market has become more competitive. But with the five campus closures having also taken place there is a need "for institutions to undertake careful market research before deciding to create a campus abroad".

Becker writes that governments and other organisations in host countries have begun inviting universities in other nations to establish branch campuses. She says this is particularly the case in the Middle East and South-East Asia where several 'international higher education hubs' have been established that offer particularly favourable conditions for foreign campuses.

"Overall, while not all host countries have introduced regulations for foreign higher education providers, more and more are implementing legislation to regulate the establishment and operation of foreign campuses," Becker says. "Some source countries have also started to develop mechanisms to guarantee the quality and reputation of their branch campus provision abroad."

She points out that originally, establishment of international branch campuses was primarily a means for Western universities facing reduced government funding to increase their tuition fee income by recruiting more international students.

"While this remains an important aim, particularly for institutions in the UK and Australia, international branch campus plans do not always originate from the providing institutions any more and, increasingly, campus proposals have been initiated by government leaders or other organisations in host countries."

Her report says that higher education institutions from 22 countries have now established branch campuses abroad compared with 17 in 2006. Most of these campuses (111 out of 162) were created by institutions in the Anglophone nations, the US continuing to overshadow all others with its 78 offshore bases accounting for 48% of the total.

The US is followed by Australia with 14 campuses, 9% of the total number, the UK with13 or 8% of the total, and France and India each with 11. Several other countries, including Mexico with seven small campuses, the Netherlands with five, Malaysia with four and Canada and Ireland with three each, operate multiple branches abroad.

Since 2006, institutions from five new source countries have established at least one overseas campus: they are Lebanon, Malaysia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Switzerland.

Becker says higher education institutions have various reasons to establish a branch campus abroad and most are motivated by a combination of factors. But the main rationales are that it can bring certain benefits including the potential to attract students unable to enrol at the home campus.

Then there are the opportunities to gain additional international student tuition fee revenues, higher visibility as an 'international university' with global ambitions, increased international prestige and, as institutions differentiate themselves from their competitors, a competitive edge in the global higher education market.

Other advantages include enhanced opportunities for student and staff mobility between the home and branch campus, leading to more international collegial interaction and academic benefits, an increase in mutual understanding between people from different cultures, development of new curriculum material adapted to local needs, and new ways to provide home-based academic staff with international teaching experience and possibly new research opportunities.

But the spread of foreign institutions setting up shop in other countries has also come in for criticisms, including that they represent a form of 'academic imperialism'. Becker says concerns have been raised about the fact that foreign campuses could reduce the ability of the host government to control the way the local higher education system is linked to public good and nation-building aims.

"Others fear the establishment of international branch campuses can increase inequality of access to higher education as these ventures may be geared to meeting the demand of those who can pay, although some providers offer scholarships to reduce such inequalities," she says.

"This report suggests that a branch campus is more likely to be sustainable if it offers high quality programmes that are not primarily focused on making financial profit but that meet the needs of the host country along with their own institutional strategic objectives."

* The report International Branch Campuses: Markets and strategies is not available free online but can be purchased from The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education at www.obhe.ac.uk

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com