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.

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“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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