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UK-based University of Birmingham is expanding with an international branch in Dubai.
The new campus is scheduled to open in autumn of this year, but most of the undergraduate and graduate courses will only be offered starting next year. Furthermore, English will be the medium of instruction.
According to university vice-chancellor and principal Sir David Eastwood, this expansion is in line with their university’s commitment to becoming a world-class institution that is outward-looking.
Birmingham is going to set up shop in the Dubai International Academic City (DIAC). DIAC is an academic hub established in 2007. It offers access to more than 400 undergraduate and post-graduate programs from regional and international universities.
Birmingham is not the only UK university that has opened a brick-and-mortar campus in Dubai. Schools like Exeter, Bradford, London Business School, and Heriot-Watt have also established their campuses in the city.
This international expansion of universities appears as a response to the popularity of massive online open courses (MOOCs). Sebastian Thrun, founder of an MOOC named Udacity, claimed that MOOCs will overtake universities around the world in 50 years’ time.
MOOCs indeed address the issue of money and time spent for learning. However, according to Scott DeRue, dean of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, universities need to sell their degrees as a premium experience that only on-campus learning can give.
While MOOCs allow earning credentials at a shorter time, most of them lack support from a reputable faculty. On the other hand, this is not a problem for established universities because employers around the world recognize the universities’ expertise and level of quality.