Not many people would have predicted it would have been the University of New Haven that would be the first to get a Western branch campus in Saudi Arabia over the line.
Yet the Connecticut-based institution last month announced that it had become the first to be granted permission to open a campus in Riyadh’s “Misk City” – a purpose-built “non-profit” city designed for Saudi’s youth population.
Despite concerns over human rights abuses and its reputation for bureaucracy, the country, with its grand Vision 2030 that looks to transform its economy away from oil to a knowledge economy, has long sparked the interest of global universities looking to expand.
With a large youth population and growing economy, many – including the University of Wollongong in Australia and Heriot-Watt University in Scotland – have also explored plans to open campuses in the country.
New Haven’s president, Jens Frederiksen, told Times Higher Education that there was “some shock” that it was his university that managed to be the first to get a campus up and running.
