For her undergraduate degree, Indian national Darshika Chaturvedi was interested in exploring different cultures and places, but the thought of going too far from home in addition to a new country was unsettling. She says she wanted to be close to home and earn a “reputed degree” — so she chose the Malaysian branch campus of the U.K.’s University of Nottingham.
“Nottingham Malaysia was the place I locked my options at since it ticked all the boxes,” says Chaturvedi. “It was not only close to home yet extremely cost effective, from accommodation to food, traveling within Malaysia and other general expenses here were much lower than that in the U.K.”
For international students who want to earn a degree abroad but not venture too far away, a branch campus could be ideal. Fortunately, they have more than 200 international branch campuses to choose from.
[Learn about the four types of students who should consider international universities.]
The U.S., U.K., Russia, France and Australia primarily establish branch campuses in other countries, according to the Cross-Border Education Research Team at the University at Albany–SUNY, which tracks transnational higher education. Countries with the most branch campuses are the United Arab Emirates with 32, China with 27, Singapore with 13, Qatar with 11 and Malaysia with nine.
Kevin Kinser, C-BERT co-founder and head of the department of Education Policy Studies at Pennsylvania State University, says branch campuses typically offer many benefits, including reduced living and travel costs. Tuition may also be less expensive, he says, “compared to the home campus, though not necessarily in terms of the other campuses in the country.” He says another benefit may be cultural, since students “might be more comfortable studying in a country that has similar religious or cultural norms.”
For international students researching their nearby international educational options, here are some things to know about branch campuses.
[Learn how to calculate the cost of earning an overseas degree.]
— Same degree as the home campus: Temple University‘s Japan branch campus is the only foreign, U.S. university in Japan that offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, says Bruce Stronach, dean of TUJ. Students in the region “are able to complete their entire degree program at an American university much more conveniently and at less cost” than on the home campus, he said via email.
The school offers 10 undergraduate majors, three master’s programs and one doctoral program, he says — and students in Tokyo receive the same degrees as those studying at the main campus in Philadelphia.
Chaturvedi says the opportunity to earn the same degree as students at the University of Nottingham’s home campus, “despite paying almost half their cost” swayed her decision. According to the school’s website, the 2016-2017 undergraduate tuition for international students studying at the Malaysia branch ranges from 30,000 to 51,000 Malaysian ringgit (around $7,200 to $12,300), and for the U.K. home campus, the cost ranges from 10,900 to 28,320 pounds (roughly $14,100 to $37,000), depending on the major.
— Access to diverse faculty: C-BERT Co-founder Kinser says quality is another factor students should consider, since branch campuses may offer distinguished faculty members. These campuses, he says, may also be a good fit for international students seeking an American- or British-style education.
“To me it was not just about the distance but also about the quality of education,” says Chaturvedi, who graduated from Nottingham’s Malaysia branch in 2014 with a bachelor’s with honors in international business management.
South Korean national Myung-In Sohn, a Middle Eastern studies major, says New York University Abu Dhabi in the UAE was her top choice as she sought a global education. She says the diverse faculty in the language department, their teaching of different regional dialects and their broad research interests “made it possible for me to foster my passion for Arabic language and the Emirati dialect.”
[Discover the ways Arab region branch campuses offer Western-style education.]
After contemplating Australian and New Zealand universities, Canadian national Nicole D’Souza says she chose Murdoch University Dubai, an Australian branch campus in the UAE, since it was closer to home than Australia and she wanted an international learning experience with diverse faculty.
She says she was interested in Australian and New Zealand universities because several schools offered a master’s degree in human resources, which wasn’t as common in Canada. And since, like Canada, Australia is part of the Commonwealth, D’Souza says she was able to use loans from the Ontario Student Assistance Program to help with tuition, which is also possible at Murdoch University Dubai.
“By having professors with experience from different corners of the world, not only were they then able to provide us with relevant and stimulating content, the smaller class sizes also meant that we were able to build better relationships with the faculty,” says D’Souza, who completed her master’s in human resource management this year.
The experience paid off in an unplanned way: D’Souza’s faculty mentor offered her an adjunct professor position at the school, which she accepted.
— Opportunity to spend time on the home campus: One of the benefits that Nepali national Dhiraj Aryal found appealing about an international branch campus was the ability to spend some time at the university’s home campus.
As a computer science major in the 2+2 program, he can complete his first two years at Temple University Japan and the last two years at the home campus in the U.S. He says he previously considered Sophia University and Waseda University in Japan, “but because of the American degree and the 2+2 computer science program, I came to TUJ.”
Sohn found this aspect appealing as well. She says she spent a semester at NYU’s New York campus through the school’s Study Away program, which provides an opportunity “to become exposed to farther places and cultures without the longer commitment, which may discourage students who wish to study close to home.”
See the complete rankings of the Best Global Universities.
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