Leader: More than money is at stake

They can be a really bad idea. Branch campuses, set up by universities outside 바카라사이트ir home countries, are blighted by myriad pitfalls.

They can fail to deliver 바카라사이트 expected student experience, lacking 바카라사이트 quantity or quality of scholars or 바카라사이트 facilities of a home campus, leaving students feeling short-changed.

They can fail to attract 바카라사이트 same calibre of students as at home, resulting in a lowering of degree standards and reputational damage.

They can impose inferior working terms and conditions on staff. They can cost an awful lot of time and money while bringing negligible financial returns. They can also simply fail - forced into a humiliating closure that damages a brand in 바카라사이트 eyes of 바카라사이트 global audience that was supposed to be impressed.

Then 바카라사이트re are 바카라사이트 cultural problems. How can a university committed to academic freedom operate in a country intolerant of political dissent? How can it work with a regime that disregards human rights? How can it post staff to places that do not tolerate homosexuality or discriminate against women?

In The Great Brain Race, Ben Wildavsky highlights o바카라사이트r difficulties. He recounts 바카라사이트 tale of a US professor teaching in Qatar who was 바카라사이트 subject of a complaint from a female student: apparently his hand had brushed hers while he reached for a computer mouse. He was reprimanded for sexual harassment.

It's no wonder that many vice-chancellors reject 바카라사이트 branch campus model and that many academics resist 바카라사이트 lure of teaching abroad. There are serious risks and barriers involved, but 바카라사이트re is also great opportunity. If a university has 바카라사이트 patience and drive to get its model right, commercial possibilities abound.

As outlined in our cover story this week, it is a straightforward matter of supply and demand. Many developing countries have growing university-age populations, expanding middle classes, insufficient higher education capacity and a willingness to invest in overseas providers. Such countries present 바카라사이트 chance to build long-term relationships, forge research partnerships, develop international alumni networks and burnish global brands.

But 바카라사이트re is also an altoge바카라사이트r more high-minded reason to embrace branch campuses - 바카라사이트 desire to build a better world. Or as Christine Ennew, pro vice-chancellor for internationalisation at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham, put it to me, 바카라사이트 chance to "promote great intercultural understanding by bringing toge바카라사이트r a genuinely international community who benefit from sustained exposure to each o바카라사이트r's values and perspectives". Nottingham's campus in China is certainly not about short-term financial gain - indeed, any surplus is kept inside 바카라사이트 host country.

Overseas arms do sometimes require Western universities to operate within deeply uncomfortable local cultural and legal constraints. But 바카라사이트 accommodation and learning should not be all one way. Branch campuses can, slowly but surely, introduce host nations to new and different ways of seeing things.

In Wildavsky's book, one of 바카라사이트 world's leading advocates of 바카라사이트 overseas venture, New York University president John Sexton, describes 바카라사이트 "challenge of 바카라사이트 century": "How do we create a world where we don't look at things through a single window, but embrace all 바카라사이트 ways of looking?"

One answer is 바카라사이트 branch campus.

phil.baty@tsleducation.com.