No ‘God-given right’ to succeed abroad, warns Hinds

Education secretary Damian Hinds announces plans for a strategy for international higher education, but he is more cautious about branch campuses.

Speaking to press at the Education World Forum in London on 21 January, Hinds said international campuses of UK institutions represented “potential huge growth opportunity” for the country’s education exports. However, he later said that while he was keen to offer support to higher education institutions and bodies such as vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK, there was no “God-given right” to be successful in operating a branch campus.

In its annual accounts the University of Reading revealed that it had taken a £27-million hit from its Malaysia campus, while the University of Liverpool abandoned plans for a branch campus in Egypt last year, citing concerns over reputational damage.