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[olddrone]

One should reasonably expect that the first-rate resource-investment in a third-rate environment/experiment will never result in second-rate outcome. 

Establishing so-called "American-style institutions" overseas sounds great on paper, not realizing, in many cases, these overseas places may not even have a day-to-day functioning law (a rampant corruption top to bottom), and the "partnership" can be a window dressing to carry out a deliberate con game to both the native students and the foreign American counterpart, usually by maintaining a glitzy website with video feeds involving figures of international repute.

[dw2007]

Lambuth University in western Tennessee closed its doors earlier this year.

[spork]

And there are supposedly hundreds of affiliated but sketchy institutions around the world that bank on the UoW name. They may be wiped off the map.

Wales isn't the only one who has played that game.  Dozens of UK and US institutions have established or are establishing campuses in other countries by partnering with s***ty little local schools with third-rate staff.  My own institution was heading that way, luckily our faculty (with covert help from some lower-level administrators) managed to nip it in the bud through some embarrassing publicity.

Even at what is probably the most prestigious/serious of these schools, NYU's new Abu Dubai campus, 90% of the faculty are far less capabled than those my campus would normally hire, and we're no NYU. - DvF

I'd be interested in hearing more about this, especially in terms of whether locally-sited, internationally-branded campuses are thriving or dying a slow death. Suffolk announced earlier this year that it is closing its Dakar campus after 12 years -- sounds like the operation was never the revenue-generator that the university thought it was going to be.

Why am I interested? I see ads for positions at "American" universities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. all the time. While it would be nice to close out my career in the Middle East or Asia, I would not want to migrate to a campus halfway around the world only to have it close -- or lose its American partner -- a year or two later.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

sounds like the operation was never the revenue-generator that the university thought it was going to be.

It probably generated lots of revenue for someone.

If there was a critical mass of college-ready students in these countries, there would already be good universities there.  There aren't, and they don't.   The US/Euro-branded campuses there have to compromise their standards or die. 

The NYU campus is trying to get around this problem by actively recruiting students from the US using the NYU name, tuition breaks, and the obsession of east-coast parents with name-brand schools.  This might just succeed, if they can carry it off past the first couple of graduating classes.  Right now, I'm skeptical, I think they are being kept afloat by Al Bloom's good name and enthusiasm.  I'd bet a bucket of money that he'll be gone in 2 years, possibly on good terms but more likely not.  (I hope I'm wrong, but my predictive track record on this kind of thing is pretty good.)

China, which does have a critical mass of prepared students, is building universities at a tremendous rate, but AFAIK they aren't trying to put foreign labels on them.  A senior administrator at one of the larger universities there told me recently that the Chinese government has decided to invest in good ideas, regardless of field or immediate payoff, on the theory that good ideas eventually pay off.  This sounds like the US in the late 40s, when we were trying to secure our position as world leader in practically everything, but sure doesn't sound like us now. - DvF

[spork]

My wife, also an academic, and a native Arabic speaker, cruises the international job ads on the CHE. There's currently an NYU-Abu Dhabi ad that lists a job with a start in 2012 or 2013. Sounds like someone might be waiting to see what the revenue stream looks like in the coming year.