Over the past decade some of the most highly-rated universities in the world have experimented with off-shoring some of their activities. Starting slowly, but gaining pace in more recent years, there is now a strong trend towards the establishment of branch campuses in overseas locations. The main aim is to enable these universities to expand their student numbers significantly and increase their income, but there are other objectives too. Sometimes innovative research opportunities are opened up, particularly where funding is provided by host country governments and corporations. They can also serve to enhance a university’s international reputation. In addition, overseas branch campuses provide ready opportunities for exchange programmes whereby students from the university’s main campus can study abroad for a period, while students based at the branch can travel to the main campus.

Estimates vary, but it is clear that there are now over two hundred and fifty overseas branch campuses being operated by universities based in the USA, the UK and Australia. They are mainly located in Asia and the Middle East, but one or two have also recently been established in Africa. Two prominent Chinese universities have recently opened campuses in Italy and it is estimated that there will be many more examples of such ‘south–north off-shoring’ in the higher education sector in the future. There are already known to be considerably more overseas-

based students registered on degree programmes offered by UK universities than there are overseas students studying in the UK.

Some branch campuses are wholly owned and operated by the universities concerned, while others have been established through commercial partnership agreements. Either way the mission is to replicate as far as is possible the experience of studying at a university’s main home campus. Governance, examination and assessment arrangements are the same, while every attempt is made to ensure that teaching quality and other facilities are also maintained at an equivalent standard.

The establishment of overseas operations, sometimes on quite a large scale, poses some significant human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD) challenges. There are also major risks, both financial and reputational, associated with the HR aspects of setting up and running overseas branch campuses. Moreover, because this whole development is so new, universities rarely have the required stock of specialist HR knowledge or experience to draw on when they first seek to establish an overseas presence.

According to the published research, by far the biggest problem is persuading established academic staff to work overseas for extended periods of time. In the commercial world undertaking an expatriate assignment is widely perceived to be a career-enhancing step, but this is not generally the case in academia. Five years spent in a developing country is often seen as five wasted years without access to home-based academic networks, laboratory facilities and research libraries. The problem is compounded by the long-established practice of appointing academic staff to the main management roles in universities as this makes it hard to fill even the most senior jobs on overseas branch campuses.

In addition to these specific issues, universities are faced with all the usual difficulties associated with the recruitment, retention and engagement of expatriate workers. These include the requirement to take account of family needs as well as those of expatriates themselves and the relatively high likelihood that people will want to return home before their assignment is scheduled to end. Losing staff immediately following their repatriation is another common problem as people find it hard to adjust to life back in their home countries. It is also always difficult to find a balance between paying a sufficient salary to make it worth someone’s while to move overseas whilst avoiding overpaying them vis à vis local market rates.

An alternative approach involves hiring local administrators in the host country to support a freshly recruited team of lecturing staff from all over the world. But this model makes it very hard, if not impossible, to replicate overseas the culture and standards that students experience when they study on the home campus. And this is exactly what has to happen if an overseas venture of this kind is to enjoy long-term success. The last thing a well-regarded university wants is to find that its hard-won international reputation is diluted or even contaminated as a result of inadequate performance at a branch campus.

You have been asked to advise a university based in the UK about HRM and HRD matters in connection with their plan to set up a branch campus in one of the Gulf States (i.e. Kuwait, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, etc.).

Questions 

In particular your advice is sought on the following matters:

1. What steps should be taken to ensure that the faculty recruited to teach on the overseas campus are capable of delivering a high-quality learning experience that is as good if not better than that encountered by students studying on its home campus?

2. What steps can be taken to minimise the possibility that expatriate assignments will fail to meet expectations by ending prematurely or provoking resignations at the repatriation stage?

3. What steps can be taken to maximise levels of employee engagement on an overseas branch campus among all kinds of staff?

What key points would you make? How would you justify your recommendations so as to make them as compelling as possible?