The Birth, Growth and Future
of the
Multi-University / Partnership
Campus Concept
Anders Norberg,
Education Analyst
Umeå University
What is a ”partnership campus”?
• …or a multi-university campus?
• …or a multi-institutional campus?
Well, it is not…
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The same main campus for two universities
A multi-campus university
A university system
A multiversity
A university in the making
Definition attempt
"A campus where two or more distant
educational institutions cooperate with
each other and local development
agencies to create new educational and
training opportunities in a locality deprived
of such opportunities“
(Prof Rex Taylor, Director of University of Glasgow’s operations on Crichton Campus,
presentation på Campus Skellefteå October 26th, 2005)
A MODERN
HYBRID
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
CONCEPT
About Campus Varberg:
(outside Gothenburg,
Sweden)
9 university programs
4 polytechnical programs
1100 students
Was formed 2003
Applied research
Universities at
Campus Varberg
Adult education
Study
counseling
Project ideas,
management,
administration
Student union
Library
Business startup
project
Polytechnical
educations
Campus Skellefteå
1500 students, some R&D
About 120 univ-employed
15 programs + 3 polytechnics
Businesses, EU-projects
Learning
Centre
Trätek
The establishment of CUC: the partners
CUC Falmouth
Tremough Campus,
Falmouth
Cornwall/UK
CUC= “Combined
Universities Cornwall”
(coordination
organisation)
Seinäjoki Campus, Finland
Kajaani
Pori
Lahti
Mikkeli
Kokkola
…other
MUC / Univ
consortia
USA
• University centers
• Joint-use facilities
Not planned as a MUC, but similar
ambitions
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
And the other way around:
..there are no future-confident regions that lack higher
education, research and innovation?
MUC – “recipe”
• >1 regional university with decentralised F2F (face-toface) classes
• Learning centre with support to flexible learning students
• Local R&D, development projects, mm
• Vocational and polytechnical education
• Science Park, Business labs & business startup
• Local coordination organisation needed
• Local construction and ownership of buildings and
infrastructure? Or is there an older useful infrastructure?
= concentration of development factors in one place, a
MUC – representing the direction towards the future?
Multi-University-Campus/
Learning centre/
Branch university campus?
• Is a MUC an overgrown learning centre,
XL?
• Is a MUC a university campus formed on
local initiative??
MUC – backgrounds?
• The belief in higher education and research as a necessary
component in all modern regional development
• The ambition to develop a better educated population in the region
• More of “mature” university students, who are stuck where they live
• New technology for education distribution makes almost everything
possible
• Universities become more and more specialised, one university does
not “know everything” any longer (if ever) – they need each others
help for good quality of broad education
…and of course: New universities are not often established any longer
in Europe and the US, they merge and cooperate and distribute over
more places instead.
Is the building of a MUC an ambition to represent the knowledge society
in a physical way in the infrastructure of a local town?
MUC PROBLEM AREAS
• MUC is very dependent on the universities
• If the MUC cannot attract additional students, no
university is interested
• A MUC has often more education than research
• A MUC can become expensive for the local
region/city – their ambition can be bigger than
the ambitions of the universities
• A MUC is hard to understand at first glance
MUC POSSIBILITIES
• Very flexible through cooperation with different
universities
• A way for regions without a university to offer good local
education possibilities
• MUC is very scalable, can be expanded fast
• The connection between local/regional development and
education offerings is strong
• Synergy effects between universities possible
• If one university leaves, another can be connected
• The MUC recruits mostly students that won´t move to a
big campus – and these students will often stay in the
area after exam –if, but only if, there are jobs…
Alternatives for local representation of a
university on a MUC
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Research and teaching department?
Regional office?
Only educations?
Franchise construction?
Subcontractor?
University-University-relations on a MUC
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Parallellity?
Coordination?
Cooperation?
Competition?
Policy agreement?
Deal?
• Vertical relation – to mother university
• Horisontal relation – to other universities
and stakeholders on the MU-Campus
MUC - Alternative backgrounds
• …the fastest way to establish and scale
education access with good quality?
• …a possibility to start and scale up fast,
with brand labels and quality
• …a platform for creative meetings
between university cultures?
• …an effective tool for differentiation of the
regional education offerings
Great Northern Way Campus,
Vancouver, Canada (gnwc.ca)
University of
British Columbia
Started for colliding university
cultures in superb media education?
Coordination
and support
organisation is
the Qatar
Foundation
Qatar Education City
Formed for differentiation of education in the county?
Qatar Education City
Guangzhou Mega Education City
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Start 2005: 10 000 students, soon 120 000,
Finally 350 000 – 400 000 students
Sun Yat-sen University,
South China University of Technology,
South China Normal University,
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies,
Guangdong University of Technology,
Guangzhou University,
Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine,
Guangdong Pharmaceutical University,
Xinghai Conservatory of Music
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
In the first free economic zone in China population growth from 30 000 to 15
millions in 30 years
Dubai Academic City
American University in the Emirates
Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani
Cambridge College International Dubai
Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB),
European University College Brussels
French Fashion University Esmod
Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus
Hult International Business School
Institute of Management Technology
Islamic Azad University
JSS Education Foundation
Mahatma Gandhi University
MAHE, Manipal-Dubai Campus
Manchester Business School Worldwide
Michigan State University Dubai (MSU Dubai)
Middlesex University, Dubai Campus
Murdoch University International Study Centre Dubai
PIM International Center
S P Jain Center of Management
SAE Institute
Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology
(SZABIST)
Syrian Virtual University
The British University in Dubai
The University of Exeter
The University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD)
Universitas 21 Global Pte Ltd
University of Phoenix
”Tax Free Zone”
–´for education
and research
- Universities can
apply online…
- A ”university
hotel”?
Internal driving forces towards the
MUC concept for a university
• …if research is seen as the main task,
undergrads at site can be a nuisance
• Specialisation of research in global competition
makes a university handicapped in broadness of
local education offerings
• No-one questions cooperation and competition
(”coopetition”) for quality in research – now
education is next
• Possibility to concentrate on focus areas in
teaching
Questions? Problems? Possibilites?
Future?
• Will most education environments in the future
become of a multi-university character?
Not so unlikely….?!?