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Centre for Internationalization

The Campus Now Comes to the Student. Staying Open Is the Hard Part

India and the Gulf are inviting foreign universities in while US student visas tighten. The record of the world's 384 branch campuses shows survival depends on realistic enrollment plans and on politics at both ends.

By the WAC editorial team6 min read16 sources

On August 23, 2026, the University of New Haven taught its first classes in Riyadh, at what it describes as the first international branch university in Saudi Arabia[2]. Its US accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, had approved the campus on April 7, so a degree earned in Riyadh sits under the same accreditation as one earned in Connecticut[1]. The university envisions more than 10,000 students there in time[1].

India moved a year earlier. In July 2025 the University of Southampton opened in Gurugram, describing itself as the first foreign institution licensed by India's University Grants Commission (UGC) under the National Education Policy 2020. It started with about 150 students and plans for up to 5,000 a year by 2035[3]. On September 11, 2026, the University of Bristol opened in Mumbai, the fifth foreign university with an operating campus in India after Deakin, Wollongong, Southampton and UNSW Sydney[10].

International education has mostly meant students crossing borders. With a branch campus the institution crosses instead, and most of its students come from the host country or region[6]. The harder question is which of these outposts will still be open in 20 years.

Nearly 400 campuses, and a surprising map

The standard count comes from the Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT), co-founded by Kevin Kinser and Jason Lane[6]. It includes only campuses that are at least partly owned by a foreign provider, operate in its name and deliver a whole degree substantially on site[4]. In November 2025 the team counted 384 in 85 host countries, up 15 percent from 333 in March 2023, though part of that rise reflects better detection, not new openings[5]. The listing as updated in September 2026 has 382 entries by our count of the page, from Heriot-Watt's campus in Dubai to Monash University's in Indonesia[4].

The map is less Western than the model's reputation suggests. In the November count, US universities ran about a quarter of the total, 97 campuses, and the UK was second with 51. Russia was third with 43, of which 35 were in former Soviet states[5]. China hosted the most, 50 including Hong Kong, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 39. Third was Uzbekistan, with 17, just ahead of Malaysia and Singapore[5].

India sits on both sides of the ledger. By our count of C-BERT's current listing, Indian institutions run 19 campuses abroad, among them IIT Madras in Zanzibar and IIT Delhi in Abu Dhabi[4]. China, by comparison, had 13 in the November count[5].

Why the direction of travel reversed

Host governments now recruit campuses. India's 2023 UGC regulations admit universities ranked in the global top 500 and treat their degrees as equivalent to Indian ones. By August 2026 the UGC had issued 16 letters of intent to 15 institutions from Australia, Italy, the UK and the US, the government told parliament[9]. Dubai's education regulator wants half of the emirate's higher education students to come from abroad by 2033[15]. In Riyadh, New Haven's senior vice president Leo Lester has pointed to unmet demand from about 200,000 school leavers who do not qualify for Saudi university places, by his account[13].

The countries that export campuses have, meanwhile, become harder for students to reach. The US has tightened visa rules for international students[6], and new international enrollments at US colleges fell 17 percent in fall 2025, according to an Institute of International Education snapshot of more than 825 institutions[14]. Rahul Choudaha, managing director of DrEducation Research, expects Indian student numbers to decline across the US, UK, Australia and Canada as post-study work routes narrow and a weaker currency raises costs[8]. His firm's 2026 report puts fees at foreign campuses in India at about 36 percent of the cost of the home campus, though more than double those of leading Indian private universities[8].

American universities had almost stopped building abroad: C-BERT's founders write that almost no new US branch campuses appeared from 2019 until 2025, when visa delays and federal limits revived interest[6].

The track record includes sudden exits

Branch campuses close, and not always for academic reasons. In February 2024 the Texas A&M regents voted to shut the university's Qatar campus by 2028, in a motion introduced and passed in under a minute, three years after renewing a 10-year contract. The previous contract was worth more than $750 million, according to a Washington Post investigation cited by Inside Higher Ed. The system cited regional instability and changing priorities; its partner, the Qatar Foundation, said it was blindsided[11].

Geography carries its own risk. After US and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, 2026, Qatar moved all higher education to remote learning from March 1 and the UAE followed on March 2[12][16]. By May, in-person classes were gradually resuming in both countries, while Saudi Arabia had kept its classes in person[13].

The research on failure points closer to home. A 2026 systematic review by Ayako Morohoshi and Takashi Sekiyama of Kyoto University, covering 106 academic and grey-literature sources published between 1990 and 2025, found that the most frequently cited category of failure is financial planning: unrealistic projections, underestimated costs and overestimated student demand[7]. Marketing and branding appeared 16 times as a failure factor and only 3 times as a success factor[7]. The authors add a caveat: the evidence is mostly case studies, and how campuses actually manage recruitment and finances remains thinly studied[7].

What the survivors share

Lane, Kinser and their colleague Jill Borgos argue that campuses with strong host-country alignment, meaning government support, regulatory clarity and local partners, are far more likely to survive. They cite NYU Abu Dhabi and Weill Cornell's medical school in Qatar, both developed jointly with governments, and George Mason's closed campus in Ras Al Khaimah, which ended after disagreements over enrollment and revenue expectations. Governance misalignment, they write, is a top reason campuses flounder. Their long-lived examples took decades: Temple University's Japan campus dates from 1982 and Georgia Tech's in France from 1990[6].

Alignment abroad is not enough, as Texas A&M shows: its host had renewed the contract and the decision was made at home[11]. Nor are the benefits to hosts settled. Reporting on Dubai's 37 branch campuses in 2025, University World News noted that they widen access but arguably add little to research, and that the regional and international rankings it cited included no foreign branch campuses[15].

The new wave will be tested on the review's central finding, demand. The 13 foreign universities recruiting in India for 2026 and 2027 are expected to enroll fewer than 3,000 students combined across 91 programs, Choudaha says[8]. In Riyadh, New Haven reported more than 4,000 expressions of interest but 250 formal applications by early May, and capped its first semester at one undergraduate and two graduate cohorts[13][2]. The campus is funded by tuition, Lester says[13].

“It is a high-stakes endeavour for universities, since it puts hard-earned reputation at risk.”

Rahul Choudaha, managing director, DrEducation Research

The WAC view

The case for taking the campus to the student is real: demand is local, fees are lower and visas are not required. But the evidence here points less to failure in the classroom than to enrollment forecasts, governance and politics at either end. A university that cannot state its break-even enrollment and its exit plan is not ready to open one. Students and host regulators should ask for both before trusting the brand on the gate.

What to do with this

For universities

Before signing, fix a conservative enrollment forecast by program, a break-even date and an exit plan, and settle who decides hiring, curriculum, budget and closure. Budget for regulators and politics at home as well as in the host country.

For educators

Expect classrooms of local and regional students, not mobile ones, and a degree that must satisfy two quality regimes. Ask early how much authority the campus has over programs and what research support exists.

For edtech leaders

New campuses start small and need to prove parity with the home campus, so the practical openings are in shared teaching platforms, remote-continuity capacity for crises, and evidence of comparable student outcomes.

The events behind this article, in WAC News

Sources

  1. University of New Haven Receives U.S. Accreditation Approval to Launch World's First International Branch Campus in Saudi Arabia. University of New Haven, April 7, 2026.
  2. Students Begin Their Academic Journey at University of New Haven - Riyadh. University of New Haven, August 26, 2026.
  3. Southampton's flagship Delhi campus launch builds on UK-India relations. University of Southampton, July 16, 2025.
  4. C-BERT International Campus Listing (updated September 2026). Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT), 2026.
  5. US, UK and Russia drive growth of branch campuses worldwide. Times Higher Education, November 7, 2025.
  6. 6 Takeaways From the International Branch Campus Boom (opinion, by Jason Lane, Kevin Kinser and Jill Borgos). Inside Higher Ed, February 4, 2026.
  7. Survival and withdrawal of international branch campuses: a systematic literature review from Business Model Canvas (Morohoshi and Sekiyama). Frontiers in Education, July 24, 2026.
  8. India poised for next wave of foreign university campuses. University World News, July 17, 2026.
  9. UGC clears 15 top foreign universities to open India campuses under new regulations. EdexLive (IANS), August 4, 2026.
  10. Bristol opens first campus in Mumbai as foreign universities expand. Business Standard, September 11, 2026.
  11. How Texas A&M's Qatar campus suddenly collapsed. Inside Higher Ed, February 16, 2024.
  12. Middle East universities disrupted as conflict widens. University World News, March 3, 2026.
  13. What will the first branch campus in Saudi Arabia herald? (commentary by Annalisa Pavan). University World News, May 20, 2026.
  14. Open Doors 2025 press release, including Fall 2025 Snapshot on International Student Enrollment. Institute of International Education, November 17, 2025.
  15. Three more international campuses set to open in Dubai. University World News, July 11, 2025.
  16. Texas A&M Qatar closes campus, moves spring semester online as Iran war raises security fears. Houston Chronicle (syndicated on Yahoo News), April 12, 2026.

Written by the WAC editorial team. Facts are drawn from the numbered sources above and were checked against them before publication; opinions appear only under “The WAC view”. The organisations and people named are not affiliated with the World Assessment Council unless stated. Send a correction

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