Will branch campuses in Saudi Arabia finally get off the ground?

More universities are vying to become the first to launch branch campuses in Saudi Arabia as the country seeks to diversify its economy away from oil, but experts have warned that they face tight regulation and risks to their reputations.

The University of New Haven from the US and Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University are the latest to have announced plans to open campuses in the Gulf country, eyeing the next transnational education hotspot after numerous Western universities launched in nearby United Arab Emirates.

They join Australia’s University of Wollongong (UOW), which became the first foreign university granted an investment licence in April.

However, Annalisa Pavan, an independent researcher on Saudi Arabia, said universities have been planning to open in the country for the past decade and predicted that the complicated “saga” would take longer still.

She said part of the reason institutions have previously failed was a very strict approach from the Saudi government, including financial regulations and demanding a lot of control.

“They make announcements but nothing happens. The paperwork they have to present is endless. They have to provide data in advance in terms of their financial reliability, the number of students, the number of staff, as if the campus was already there…they are disheartening, too difficult.”

Wollongong has already had to delay its plans to open. It initially intended to offer English-language programmes in Riyadh from mid-2025 and preparatory courses from 2026, ahead of undergraduate degrees from 2027.

But a spokesperson said that now UOW Riyadh will not launch with English language and foundation courses until 2026, subject to the regulatory requirements of the Saudi Ministry of Education.

Unlike Qatar, Saudi Arabia is asking for universities to pay for their own campuses. “The Saudi Arabian government thinks that they are attractive enough to have foreign universities queuing to ask for a foreign investor licence to open the campuses,” said Pavan.

New Haven said in a statement that opening an international branch campus in Saudi Arabia presents a number of benefits, including an enhanced international reputation as well as new academic and financial opportunities.

“Being able to help address the great interest in and the demonstrated need for access to higher education across Saudi Arabia positions the university to make a meaningful contribution to advancing the important goals of the region,” it said.

“We are excited to help create bright futures for generations of deserving Saudi students.”

A spokesperson for Heriot-Watt said the country was a key strategic market, and it saw its role as supporting the nation’s ambitions to grow its demand for world-class, English-language higher education.

Part of the attraction lies in the country’s Vision 2030 strategy that has seen it plough money into research and development as well as become more socially and culturally liberal.

Given the dozens of international branch campuses in neighbouring UAE, Nigel Healey, a researcher and consultant in international higher education, said it was tempting for foreign universities to see Saudi Arabia as the “next frontier for transnational education”.

“Strong economic growth, a political strategy aimed at liberalisation and diversification enshrined in Vision 2030, and favourable demographics are strong pull factors, which are already tempting the first wave of Western branch campuses from foreign universities with a long track record in the region.”

Establishing branch campuses could also allow foreign universities to build closer links with the new academic powerhouses such as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) which enjoy generous research funding, he added.

But unlike the UAE, Healey said the oil-rich country, where homosexuality is illegal and carries the death penalty, remains deeply conservative and autocratic under Muhammad Bin Salman.

“This rigid social and religious environment, combined with a poor record on human rights, is anathema to the values of many Western universities,” he added.