While many higher education institutions continue to draw record numbers of students from around the world to study in their often hallowed halls, a new phenomenon has emerged in the past decade: the branch campus.

Branch campuses are effectively higher education institutions operated by a university in a location or country other than its traditional main location. They serve a dual purpose: either enabling students from the institution’s domestic market to access a familiar style of teaching but in a new location, or allowing students from the host or other nearby countries to study at a respected university without having to travel so far afield, which may be beneficial from a cost or cultural perspective.

Dubai currently has the highest concentration of branch campuses – over 30 – split between two free trade zones, Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Village. Britain has the strongest presence: Middlesex and Exeter Universities both have branches and the British University of Dubai, offering teaching in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, University of Glasgow and Cardiff University, alongside Australia’s Griffith University and Wollongong University and India’s Pune University.

International students account for 57 per cent of all those enrolled in Dubai’s branch campuses, with the emirate successfully attracting students from neighbouring countries, Asia and, increasingly, Africa to study within its borders. All international students have to be accommodated in purpose-built accommodation, the provision and quality of which has become an important selling point in the market, with specialist investment and development opportunities available. Global Student Accommodation, for instance, is on the verge of opening its first student accommodation scheme in Dubai.

Within the UK, Malaysia now has five university branch campuses, with over 58,000 students studying for UK degree programmes or professional qualifications, mirroring British institutions’ own strong presence in Malaysia, the largest world market for UK transnational higher education provision.

Over a dozen UK-based universities have also invested in London branch campuses. Typically, these are institutions based outside South East England, for whom having a London location can help raise their international appeal and help attract students who – while they may be comfortable relocating to the UK – would prefer the relative familiarity of living and studying in London.

Further information

Savills World Student Housing Report 2015-16.