Will foreign branch campuses exacerbate inequality?

Egypt has approved a draft law to regulate the performance of foreign university branch campuses to be set up in Egypt’s new administrative capital. But will it be enough to assuage concerns that the opening of foreign universities will exacerbate inequality and class division?

These concerns have been raised, among others, by a group calling itself the March 9 Movement for the independence of the university. In a recent Facebook post, it said: "The establishment of a number of foreign branch campuses in the new administrative capital contributes to the widening of the social and class gap and transforms university education into a method of class and community separation instead of being a contributing tool for social development."

About 28% of Egypt's 99 million inhabitants are currently living below the poverty line and that percentage jumps to 50% in Upper Egyptian cities, according to a local news report.

The draft legislation, approved at a 31 March meeting of the Egyptian council of ministers, coincides with a recent announcement by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that new private universities will not be allowed to operate in Egypt unless they have collaboration agreements with institutions rated among the top 50 universities in the world.

The first foreign campus recently inaugurated in the proposed new administrative and financial capital – to be located 45 kilometres east of Cairo – is a branch of the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada, according to a local news report. Another five universities from the United States, Britain, Hungary, Sweden and France are expected to be inaugurated by 2019.

The Technische Universität Berlin launched its first branch campus in Egypt in 2012, according to US News and World Report.

According to the new draft law, the decision to allow a new campus will be issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research after it has verified it meets all infrastructural and human resource requirements. There will be an annual fee paid by the branch campus for the services performed by state agencies which will not exceed 1% of the tuition expenses for the students of the branch campus.

The state agencies, among other things, will provide administrative, security and educational support and will ensure that the foreign university is able to exercise academic and institutional freedom and independence. Agencies will also facilitate the process of equalising the degrees awarded by the branch campus with those granted by Egyptian universities.

The branch campuses will be required to enrol a proportion of local students and employ a proportion of Egyptian staff in administrative and teaching roles.

All certificates awarded by the branch campus are to be recognised in the country from which the campus originates and there will be an annual allocation of grants to students and faculty allowing Egyptians to study or train at the main foreign university.

Each branch campus is required to submit a five-year plan outlining expected student numbers and costs and the branch will fall under the supervision of a council set up by the ministry of higher education to monitor quality.

Valid concerns

The concerns of the March 9 Movement around accessibility are valid in some respects, according to Christopher Hill, director of the Doctoral Training Centre at the British University in Dubai.

"International branch campuses (IBCs) may be cheaper than travelling abroad to a foreign university for study but they are usually more expensive than the local, state or national options and this can indeed create a divide."

"The issue is further exacerbated when it comes to employability as the preference is often to hire graduates with international experience or mobility."

Hill said that there was a danger that foreign providers may be perceived as having greater value and quality than the local institutions.

"Thus, it is important to ensure that clear and coherent accreditation and regulation processes are in place and branch campuses must adhere to national requirements and integrate with the national system where possible through clear lines of communication, awareness and collaboration in order to promote the branch campus model as an integrated element of national educational policy," Hill said.

But there are also benefits, said Hill.

"If properly managed, IBCs can help in raising the national profile and support higher education development through integrating and collaborating with the national institutions as well as opening avenues and opportunities for funding, exchange and research activity," Hill told University World News.

According to transnational education expert Nigel Healey, vice-chancellor of Fiji National University, there are three main benefits for the host country of allowing a foreign university to establish an IBC:

• • Increasing the supply of university places and allowing more domestic students to study at home;
  
  
• • Attracting students from neighbouring countries and generating foreign exchange and economic benefits for the host country; and
  
  
• • The use of innovative technologies and pedagogies to educate students, which are then adopted by domestic competitors.

Local needs

The disadvantage of an IBC, said Healey, is that it is “generally teaching a curriculum designed for students on the home campus, using pedagogies and a medium of instruction that is alien to students in the host country”.

However, this misalignment of the curriculum with local needs could be “ameliorated by allowing locally-hired faculty to adapt content and pedagogies to the needs of their learners and the expectations of local employers.”

Healey agreed that there was a risk of IBCs serving social elites to the exclusion of poorer students.

"There is another potential risk that IBCs primarily serve social elites," Healey said. "The cultural distance between the IBCs and the host country results in their students becoming detached from their roots."

"Thus, if the IBC recruits a student base that is narrow and exclusive, it remains a possibility that elite students acquire ‘Western’ values that are alien to their compatriots," Healey said.

Rachael Merola, senior researcher at the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, told University World News that IBCs that succeed over the long-term could be credited with providing much-needed education, training students for jobs and industries which are in demand, strengthening the reputation of the home university and the education system of the host country, and in some cases “fostering research links and other forms of collaboration between the home institution and entities in the host country”.

She said that IBCs do not necessarily contribute to economic and social class division. “This is a function of how they are set up, and the governmental and institutional regulations in place."

However, branch campuses that do not succeed can bring “substantial financial loss and reputational damage to the home institution, disrupt higher education provision in the host country, and negatively impact enrolled students," she said.

According to Marina Apaydin, assistant professor of strategic management at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and director of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Case Initiative, international branch campuses, rather than entrenching inequality, may succeed in facilitating a redistribution of intellectual capital.

"Such IBCs may be strong competitors for Egyptian universities and they may attract the best students, thus there will be a redistribution of intellectual capital … However, Egyptian universities have strong legacy and brand names and, thus, this trend may not be that significant."

Apaydin said Egyptian universities should view the opening of IBCs not as a threat but as an opportunity for cooperation in teaching and research.

Understanding the purpose of branch campuses is the key, according to Hill.

"Egypt already has American style universities in place and an incredibly long tradition of higher education. What is needed is a clear understanding of the purpose and focus of the branch campuses. What are they bringing? What value do they add to the nation? How will they integrate?"