Education Solidarity Network » branch campus

The Perils of Branch Campuses

caut — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:15:53 +0000

As more and more universities and colleges seek out alleged fortunes overseas by setting up branch campuses, nagging questions linger about the financial stability of these ventures. We are being told by governments and employers alike that money is scarce after all. So surely our administrators are being careful about how they are spending their scarce resources? But a story in the obscure Durham Business News in Canada this week highlights the financial risks that institutions don’t always tell us when embarking on their overseas joint ventures.

According to the report, Oshawa’s Durham College is posting up big losses on branch campus projects with private partners in Panama and India. According to the report, the college admits it lost CA $500,000 on a campus in Bangalore, India. Not one student walked through the door. Ah, but that expensive lesson was forgotten almost immediately as the college went on to spend another half a million Canadian dollars on a campus in Panama. That campus did graduate a handful of students of least, but those students have sued the college. They’re claiming programs they had been promised weren’t delivered. The campus has now been closed and the college has terminated its entire international program.

The big question is how many other colleges and universities are throwing away money?

Labour rights to be protected at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus

caut — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:38:32 +0000

Construction workers building New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus will be guaranteed some basic protections under a deal announced earlier this month by the university.

NYU had been facing mounting criticism from human rights and labour organizations over the university’s controversial venture into the United Arab Emirates where the basic rights of workers are routinely violated. Human Rights Watch has reported that UAE labour laws, “fail to protect workers’ rights to organize and to bargain collectively, provide punishments for striking workers, and exclude from coverage domestic workers employed in private households.”

Under the terms of the deal reached this month, NYU will require companies contracted to build the university’s branch campus to reimburse employees for any fees they may have paid to recruitment agencies, ensure that overtime is voluntary and property compensated, and provide employees with vacation and paid holidays.

While the agreement is important, gaps nevertheless remain. There doesn’t appear to be any independent monitoring mechanism, nor is there a duty for employers to pay a living wage or recognize the right of employees to bargain collectively.

However, the deal may be something education unions can build upon to press their domestic institutions into fully respecting core labour rights when operating overseas.

Branch campuses – union advice for members

ucu campaigns — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:43:09 +0000

Hi all,

Thanks to the CAUT for the helpful posting on the OBHE report on branch campuses (called offshores in the UK), the UCU has just published advice for members whose institutions set up such campuses. This follows on from pioneering work by the NTEU in this area.

To view the UCU advice, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4368

To view the NTEU guidance, click here: http://www.nteu.org.au/publications/other/overseas

Branch Campuses: The Next Bubble?

caut — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:06:46 +0000

Many universities and colleges in the mainly English-speaking developed countries are investing more and more of their resources into offshore operations, including branch campuses. According to the UK-based Observatory for Borderless Higher Education, there are now 162 branch campuses around the world, up by more than 40% since 2006.

Many of these “campuses” are joint-ventures and franchising arrangements with local providers. Despite the hype spun by university and college leaders, in most cases the motivation for these initiatives has been financial, not educational. And the product being sold hasn’t entirely been up to standards.

In a recent article in International Higher Education, Philip Altbach pulls no punches in calling out branch campuses for what they really are:

Let us be honest about branch campuses. With a few notable exceptions, they are not really campuses. They are, rather, small, specialized, and limited academic programs offered offshore to take advantage of a perceived market. Not surprisingly, the most popular programs offered are in business management and information technology — with fairly low setup costs and significant worldwide demand. Except where generous hosts…provide facilities and infrastructure, branch campuses become rather spartan places, resembling office complexes rather than academic institutions.

In the rush to establish these branch “campuses”, many institutions are risking their reputations and scarce finances on something that, like the stock market before the bubble burst, seemed like a sure bet even if the dirty little secret was that things were simply not sustainable in the long run.