Offshore and out of touch? The curly questions confronting Australian universities overseas

Arbitrary detention, grossly unfair trials, enshrined discrimination against women, the death penalty: human rights groups say that this is Saudi Arabia today.

Authorities there are now working closely with the University of Wollongong to open its latest and arguably most ambitious international campus in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The University of Wollongong will join Arizona State University, University of Strathclyde, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and IE University in Riyadh. Credit: Getty Images

“UoW is the first foreign university to receive a Saudi Investment Licence under the country’s Vision 2030 program, reflecting our reputation as a trusted global education partner,” the university said.

Regulatory hurdles have delayed the campus’s opening, which was set for mid-2025. English courses will now begin next year, with undergraduate degrees to follow from 2027.

The university says its fees will be in line with local expectations – courses delivered offshore generally cost half the price or less of a degree completed in Australia. Unlike the way universities in Saudi Arabia have traditionally operated, classes will not be segregated by gender.

While the federal government has encouraged universities to expand their offshore offerings, the sector’s response to a campus in Saudi Arabia has been mixed. The tension between the Gulf State and liberal values of equality, diversity and academic freedom is top of mind for many observers.

“We are fairly shocked, human rights issues in Saudi Arabia are such that this decision needs to be called into question,” NTEU University of Wollongong branch president Dr Susan Engel said.

Key concerns for the union are academic freedom and the safety of female staff, she said.

Gavin Moodie, a former Australian university administrator and honorary research fellow at Oxford looking at higher education, said UoW is well positioned to “promote Enlightenment values and scientific principles” in Saudi Arabia, but that would be curtailed by the Kingdom’s restrictions.

“Many universities with a fundamental commitment to academic freedom on their home campus nonetheless have established campuses in countries that do not have as strong commitment to liberal values, such as China and the United Arab Emirates,” he said.

The university says that it will apply the same “academic standards, quality controls and governance… and [will] not compromise on the core values that underpin our teaching and research,” a spokesman said.

Australian universities have a long and chequered history with opening offshore campuses. RMIT has two campuses in Vietnam dating back 20 years, the University of Wollongong has operated in Dubai since 1993 and works elsewhere globally and four Australian universities have campuses in Singapore. A number of Australian universities also partner with local institutions to deliver their degrees.

“It’s something that we strongly support, it’s taking Australia’s world-class qualifications offshore. It’s about positioning Australia through soft power diplomacy,” said the International Education Association of Australia’s Phil Honeywood. “If we don’t do it, other countries will.”

Some of these offshore endeavours have flopped. Charles Sturt University closed its Canada campus in 2015 and Monash’s campus in South Africa was sold to its local partner in 2019.

“Australian universities have learnt the models that work. That is to make sure you team up with the right partner and fit in with the host country’s policy settings,” said Honeywood, saying legal changes in different countries has allowed Australian institutions to set up shop in an environment that was previously too difficult.

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