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Why are there no transnational UK university campuses in Korea?

by Kyuseok Kim

The UK’s Strategic Moves

Transnational Education (TNE) has been a significant strategy for UK universities seeking to expand their global footprint. TNE involves delivering educational programmes across borders, allowing institutions to reach international students without requiring them to relocate. According to The Cross-Border Education Research Team, which is arguably the most reliable source for tracking the worldwide development of transnational higher education, the UK has 46 branch campuses in 19 countries globally as of 2023. The geographic distribution of such educational enterprises is widespread, from Latin America, the EU, the Middle East, to Africa.

The most distinct importer of UK transnational campuses is the Asian region, where 20 outposts (43%) are in operation. China is the biggest host, with nine UK campuses, followed by Malaysia (six campuses) and Singapore (two campuses). Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan each have a single campus. In stark contrast with many successful UK cases in Asia, however, past attempts to establish TNE programmes in South Korea have faced numerous challenges, leading to several high-profile failures. Why is this?

Continued Success in TNE

UK universities are the second largest exporter of international branch campuses next to the United States. In recent years, it appears that UK universities have continued to look towards Asia as a fertile ground for TNE initiatives. For instance, De Montfort University Leicester has become the first UK university to open a campus in Cambodia, located in  Phnom Penh.

The most recent UK university branch campus to open is the collaborative campus between Lancaster University and Deakin University in Indonesia. Officially approved in January 2024, this campus represents a significant joint venture in TNE, the first overseas joint campus between UK and Australian universities, starting from September 2024.

No UK Branches in South Korea?

The strategy behind TNE expansions often includes enhancing global educational exchange, research collaborations, and increasing international academic mobility. Additionally, motivations such as global branding, revenue generation through student recruitment, and soft power diplomacy for long-term institutional strategies play a role. There are five international branch campuses in South Korea. However, none are from the UK, although the University of Southampton has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with the Incheon Metropolitan City Government to initiate discussions.

Media coverage on the conflict with South Korean authorities or the complete abandonment of plans for UK campuses is notable, in contrast to the presence of US campuses in South Korea, which started in 2012. This suggests substantial challenges for UK universities in establishing branch campuses in South Korea. Why have UK ventures struggled in South Korea?

Aberdeen’s Hadong Project

The University of Aberdeen’s attempt to establish a campus in Hadong, Gwangyang Free Economic Zone, is perhaps the most highly-cited case. Announced in 2015, the project aimed to open the UK’s first branch campus in South Korea, focusing on engineering subjects essential for the offshore oil and gas industry. Despite securing funding from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the project faced delays due to financial and logistical issues, and the campus never opened as planned.

Despite the promising start and official support, the project encountered numerous setbacks. Financial and bureaucratic delays postponed the campus opening from its initial target of September 2016 to 2017. Further complications arose due to the global downturn in the oil and gas industry, leading to forecasted challenges in student recruitment and securing the necessary faculty. By 2018, after multiple delays and logistical hurdles, the University of Aberdeen decided to abandon the project altogether. Consequently, significant investments in infrastructure, such as a newly built dormitory worth £4.6 million, remained unused, leading to financial losses and legal disputes with local partners.

Lancaster’s Bid in Busan

Similarly, Lancaster University attempted to establish a presence in Busan. The project, which began in 2014, aimed to create a branch campus offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In 2016, it embarked on a plan to establish a campus in the Myeongji International City in Busan, South Korea. This initiative was part of a broader effort by the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority to create a global education hub in the region. However, it was reported that Lancaster faced bureaucratic hurdles, including difficulties in meeting South Korean regulatory requirements.

Negotiations with Busan Metropolitan City and related government bodies extended for over a year, because the plans included substantial financial commitments, with Busan agreeing to support the project with up to £10 million over seven years to cover initial operational costs and ensure the university’s sustainability. However, as the opening date approached, concerns about the financial viability and strategic fit of the project began to surface. The changing educational environment and opposition from local universities added to the complications. By 2020, Busan decided to re-examine the feasibility of the campus, leading to the eventual abolition of the project.

Navigating a Saturated Market

The unsuccessful attempts by UK universities in the southern part of South Korea, underscore the importance of geographic location. The southern regions are heavily industrialised, with a strong focus on sectors like shipbuilding and manufacturing. However, these areas are also experiencing a growing polarisation of national resources, with a significant concentration of population and economic activities in the capital area, Seoul. Moreover, the demographic shift is driven by the declining young population, further exacerbating the regional imbalance. Consequently, campuses located away from Seoul struggle to attract and retain students and faculty, making it challenging to achieve long-term sustainability.

South Korea’s higher education market is saturated, with an oversupply of universities and colleges. This saturation is compounded by a declining college-going population due to the country’s low birth rates. With fewer students entering higher education, competition among institutions has intensified, making it difficult for new entrants, particularly foreign universities, to secure a significant market share. The education authorities and regional governments are likely be influenced by the local universities and communities which are potentially threatened by losing their recruitment pools. The competitive landscape requires UK universities to differentiate themselves through unique value propositions by offering programmes that are not widely available in South Korea, but South Korean universities have been strengthened significantly in the last two decades.

Lessons from Cautionary Tales

Aberdeen and Lancaster’s attempts serve as cautionary tales for other institutions considering similar ventures. Meticulous planning in TNE initiatives can still be challenged by the complexities and uncertainties involved in TNE operations, particularly in specialised fields subject to global economic fluctuations. It is unlikely that these failures stem from inadequate planning. UK universities boast the longest history of TNEs, seasoned with rich experience. However, the experiences of the two UK universities underscore the necessity for robust, adaptable strategies and extensive groundwork to address local conditions and unforeseen challenges effectively.

Understanding and navigating the stringent regulatory framework is crucial. Universities must engage with local authorities and stakeholders early in the planning process to ensure compliance and secure the necessary approvals. Institutions also need to be prepared for potential delays and economic fluctuations that could affect their projects. Legal and infrastructural preparedness is essential to avoid the pitfalls experienced by previous ventures. Sensitive issues, such as property rights and contractual disputes, including the repatriation of profit with local governments of free economic zone authorities, can hinder branch campus establishment. For instance, Aberdeen faced legal disputes related to unused infrastructure investments, potentially deterring similar initiatives in the future.

While the South Korean higher education market presents significant challenges for UK TNEs, it may still offer substantial opportunities for those willing to invest the necessary time, resources, and strategic thinking.

Kyuseok Kim, known professionally as KS, is a doctoral candidate in Educational Administration and Higher Education at Korea University. He holds a BA in English Language Education and an MBA from Sungkyunkwan University, and was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in 2012. Since 2010, KS has developed extensive expertise in strategic planning, student recruitment, international relations, and partnerships across both public and private sectors. He has held significant roles at UWAY Co., Ltd., M Square Media, SUNY Korea, and Sungkyunkwan University. KS is also an active scholar-practitioner, contributing numerous research papers and opinion pieces to respected international and South Korean publications. ks.kyuseok.kim@gmail.com  www.linkedin.com/in/ks-kim-intled 

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The Secret Lecturer: What Really Goes on at University

Canbury Press 2024, 208pp. ISBN 9781914487217 (paperback), 9781914487224 (ebook)

Review by Rob Cuthbert

If you do research in higher education, this book might make you angry – but probably not for the reasons the author hopes. The blurb says: ”For more than a decade, the deteriorating state of the higher education sector in the UK has been known to insiders, but not to the public. Now … an academic who must remain anonymous … presents a no-holds-barred account of life on campus.”

I had high hopes. The Secret Barrister was a runaway success, earning the respect of professionals and public alike. The Secret Doctor trod much the same path. Surely The Secret Lecturer could not fail to do for higher education what its predecessors had done for law and medicine?

Yes it could. So why was it such a disappointment? Not because it is full of jaw-dropping anecdotes and stories which could be hard to believe. I believed all of them, and too many HE staff will have had many similar experiences. The disappointment is at an opportunity wasted, with the book’s opening sentence enough to deflate all expectations:

“For many people the question, ‘Are British universities f***ed?’ is as rhetorical as ‘Does the Supreme Pontiff devoutly believe in the monotheistic faith he leads?’ or ‘Do members of the Ursidae family of carnivorous mammals defecate in arboreal regions?’”

Many would be tempted to stop there. This “no-holds-barred account” comes from someone too bitter to let his professed love of higher education show, and not as clever as he thinks he is (the text suggests it is a ‘he’).

Where other secret professionals enrich their anecdotes with insights on how their profession could be better and develop a convincing narrative, The Secret Lecturer just indulges in stereotypes. Students are either lazy drug-taking plagiarists who make fantastic excuses for their lack of effort, or disadvantaged and benighted souls who have been cruelly betrayed by their schools, lecturers, departments, university or the system. Academic and professional colleagues are mostly treacherous, cowardly, prejudiced, ambitious, lazy backstabbers, apart from the few who share the world view of the author, and a dedicated administrator or two. Managers are all intellectually dull time-wasting control freaks who get in the way of proper academic work, often with “meaningless HE rituals”. Academics in business, marketing and law collude in lowering academic standards – “it’s all poster presentations and multiple-answer quizzes” – which in other disciplines are jeopardised mostly by fear and management pressure – “If you exhibit talent round here, you’re likely to be hated rather than appreciated.” And when The Secret Lecturer steps outside the campus he finds only a dystopian ghost town where all the shops have gone out of business and the bureaucrats’ blood runs even colder than in the university.

Clunky similes and metaphors keep popping up: the inflation rate is “as high as Johnny Depp atop a heap of hard drugs” before “another gormless rectangle of a senior manager” intervenes. They become even more mysteriously obscure – on just one page not only: “feeling more forlorn and nauseous than if I’d been forced at gunpoint to watch the complete television work of Ross Kemp”, but also “It’s hotter than the air that issues from Adrian Chiles’ mouth.”. The author presents events as if they are from just one academic year, which is a perfectly legitimate device, but his day-by-day account through two semesters is the only structure for the text. The longer-running threads such as a job application to a foreign university and giving a paper at an overseas conference are less convincing, suggesting lack of due diligence by the author as much as bad faith by others. And surely hardly anyone who still does it believes that external examining is “a nice little earner”.

The brief Epilogue purports to suggest a way forward, involving abolishing fees, culling the massed ranks of management, decarbonising, demilitarising, decolonialising and restoring institutional democracy. But these remain mere slogans in the absence of any coherent narrative, and the horror stories remain as symptoms in the absence of any coherent diagnosis of the underlying problems. “My idealistic aim is that someone, somewhere might read this book and be cheesed off enough to clear up the mess.” Higher education may be a mess, but ranting while waiting for someone else to clear it up is not a solution.

Rob Cuthbert is editor of SRHE News and the SRHE Blog, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Management, University of the West of England and Joint Managing Partner, Practical Academics. Email rob.cuthbert@uwe.ac.uk. Twitter @RobCuthbert.