Transnational higher education: offshore campuses in the Middle East

This paper maps the landscape of transnational higher education in the Middle East, focusing in particular on the recent expansion of satellite, branch, and offshore educational institutions and programs that foreign institutions have set up in the region. Of the estimated 100 branch campuses curren...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative education 2011-05, Vol.47 (2), p.181-207
Main Authors: Miller-Idriss, Cynthia, Hanauer, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arab states
Campuses
College campuses
Colleges and universities
Comparative Education
Content Analysis
Cost of education
Cultural education
Cultural Pluralism
Culturalism
Definitions
Economics of education
Educational Development
Educational institutions
Educational reform
Educational theory
Educational Trends
Foreign Countries
Globalization
Higher Education
Institutional Characteristics
International Education
International Educational Exchange
International Schools
Middle East
Middle Eastern Studies
Offshore
Performance Factors
Position Papers
Regional identity
School campuses
Tertiary education
Transnationalism
Trend Analysis
Universities
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Summary:This paper maps the landscape of transnational higher education in the Middle East, focusing in particular on the recent expansion of satellite, branch, and offshore educational institutions and programs that foreign institutions have set up in the region. Of the estimated 100 branch campuses currently operating worldwide, over one-third are in the Arab region and the majority have opened within the last decade; two dozen additional transnational programs and universities exist in the region as well. Very little research has been conducted on these new institutions, however, raising many questions for scholars in education. This paper traces reasons for the rapid growth of the transnational higher education model in the Arab states and discusses the explanatory power for this phenomenon of the two major prevailing theories in comparative and international education. We argue that neither neoinstitutional theories about global norm diffusion nor culturalist theories about the local politics of educational borrowing and transfer sufficiently explain this phenomenon, and call instead for a regional approach. We also raise questions for further inquiry.
ISSN:0305-0068
1360-0486
DOI:10.1080/03050068.2011.553935