Dive Brief:

• U.S. colleges have been building campuses and forming partnerships abroad, but the new programs are often driven by money and are running into tricky territory with academic freedom.
• The latest incident involves a Peking University professor fired because he is a critic of the Chinese government; faculty members at Wellesley College, which has a partnership agreement with Peking University, protested.
• One argument offered for forming these partnerships: U.S. colleges' presence creates engagement and helps spread openness, and leaving would leave those principles undefended abroad.

Dive Insight:

While colleges have realized that attracting foreign students to their U.S. campuses can generate big money in tuition payments, there may be even more tempting prospects by expanding abroad. It's not without its headaches, though: Even if academic agreements allow for freedom of speech on campus, there's no guarantee that same freedom will be accorded beyond the campus walls — another sticky issue to navigate.