Dive Brief:
- China’s Weiming Education Group will pay $12.6 million for a 58-acre University of Connecticut campus in West Hartford, and it plans to turn the space into an international school.
- Times Higher Education reports Weiming is the largest provider of private schools in China and hopes to recruit future teachers for its schools by training them at the former UConn campus.
- Weiming first branched out into the United States in 2012 and has partnered with universities to improve the academic and language skills of Chinese students studying here.
Dive Insight:
Weiming Education Group’s move to the United States reflects a global shift that is happening across a number of industries. It is increasingly important to have a global reputation. Many U.S. universities maintain an international presence, whether it is to offer their students safe opportunities to study abroad, tap into new markets for their curricula, or expand research collaborations. Six institutions have found a home in Qatar’s Education City, which runs with more than $300 million-per-year from the country’s ruling family.
U.S. institutions are also relying more than ever on international students to pad tuition revenue at home. There are concerns, however, that these aggressively recruited students do not meet minimum standards for enrollment.