Pulse: Who actually wants to study at a Branch Campus?
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Interest in branch campuses is relatively high among audiences actively seeking to study abroad.
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Over 60% of prospective Masters and PhD students would at least consider the opportunity and 35% say they would want to study at a branch campus.
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U.S. and Chinese audiences say they are the most interested in branch campus opportunities, while Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria are among the least interested.
The UK's refreshed international education strategy, published in January, positions TNE at its forefront. So much so that two of the three core ambitions set out in its Ministerial Foreword are at least linked to its increased implementation:
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We will increase the UK’s international standing through education and make the UK the global partner of choice at every stage of learning – a system trusted to deliver excellence and opportunity wherever it operates.
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We have set a bold ambition for the UK’s thriving education sector: to collectively grow education exports to £40 billion per year by 2030.
Perhaps unnecessarily, I've embolden the relevant sections.
The UK was already towards the forefront of TNE expansion globally with C-BERT placing them as the second largest exporter of branch campuses (53), behind only the U.S. (97). So as attentions are increasingly placed upon them, the obvious question is: who wants to study at a branch campus?
Who wants to study a Masters at a branch campus?
As part of our Pulse survey, we ask prospective students: Would you be interested in studying for an overseas degree at an international campus in your home country?
Below, we see their answers broken down by by nationality:
To begin with, let's look at the far right bar on our chart. Here we find the results from all international prospective Masters students, and it's fair to say that the option of studying on a branch campus is appealing. These are people who have already made the decision to study abroad and are actively searching for opportunities and yet 61% say they would at least consider a branch campus in their home country. Furthermore, 35% say they definitely would take that opportunity were it available, so it's clear to see that there is at least an appetite for this form of TNE.
As we pan left across the chart, we see the results from some of the largest international audiences for UK Masters study based on HESA enrolment data, and they differ rather a lot.
Among those who have the most positive attitudes towards branch campuses, we have the U.S. and China, of which 46% and 43% respectively are definitely interested. Following those come India and Ghana whose responses are almost the inversion of each other. Slightly over 60% of both would consider branch campus study, however, Indians are less definitive - they are 6pp (percentage points) less likely to answer 'Yes' and 7pp more likely to select 'Maybe'.
Conversely, Pakistani, Nigerian, and Nepalese audiences are the least likely in our sample to consider studying at a branch campus, with less than 50% of each saying they would consider it.
Who wants to study a PhD at a branch campus?
Following on from our Masters level respondents, it's worth seeing whether the results remain true at PhD level. Below we see a similar chart (with slightly different audiences to reflect the largest audiences by PhD enrolments):
The simple answer is that, yes, trends do remain more or less the same at PhD level, too. Where we see the exact same percentages when we group the responses from all international audiences - 35% say 'Yes', 26% say 'Maybe'.
After that, we see the nuance introduced. The U.S. and China remain two of the most receptive audiences to the idea of branch campus study, though Chinese audiences are slightly more in the 'Maybe' camp at PhD level. Italian and Indonesian audiences can also be considered as two of the audiences most likely to participate in branch campus study, with at least 40% of both answering 'Yes'.
Once again, Pakistani, Nigerian, and Bangladeshi audiences are more likely to say 'No' to the proposition of branch campus study than to even consider the possibility. Interestingly, both Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are even less likely to consider it at PhD level than Masters. It appears that for these prospective students, the physical studying abroad part of international study is at least as important than the perceived quality and prestige of the qualification they receive. Whereas there are others, chiefly the U.S. and China, seem to value physically leaving their country less than they do receiving a qualification from an international institution.
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