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Cornell University established the first overseas U.S.- based medical campus in Doha, Qatar.

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Every year, thousands of foreign students come to UCLA and other American universities to experience higher education “American-style” – and to reap the benefits associated with such experiences when they return home.

But in an era when obtaining U.S. student visas can take longer than graduating from college, and as national borders disintegrate under the pressure from the global economy, many American universities are taking their education services and setting up campuses abroad to serve these students.

U.S. universities are joining scores of institutions from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, in establishing programs taught in English and attempting to capitalize on growing markets of students who are willing to open their wallets for a diploma bearing a Western name.

Partly responsible for such markets are the lack of advanced higher education systems in countries booming in the world economy, said Robert Rhoads, associate professor for education at UCLA.

High demand has originated in particular from countries with emerging economies such as China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

“In many cases, a Western degree from a higher education institution has a higher draw for potential employers,” Rhoads said.

Many of the students passing through these institutions are snapped up by transnational corporations who seek locally based employees with an American education.

Such is the case for Philadelphia-based Temple University, a public institution which founded and developed its Tokyo campus in the early 1980s with the help of private sponsors.

Adelaide Ferguson, assistant vice president for international programs at Temple, said students in Japan are very keen to be associated with a U.S. education, given the popularity of American culture among the Japanese.

“Students are drawn to the university not only because we offer classes that are not available elsewhere, but also because of the critical thinking offered by American education which is not replicated in Japanese institutions,” she said.

Despite the potentially massive costs involved in setting up a campus abroad, Ferguson said that Temple University Japan breaks even, adding that the goal in venturing overseas never was to capture profits.

But other institutions are seeking to take advantage of these foreign education markets, engendered by international corporations hungering for local talent.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business has set up executive MBA programs in Barcelona, Spain and Singapore.

Similar programs have been started by the University of Pennsylvania’s famed Wharton School in Singapore and India.

New York-based Cornell University also made headlines two years ago when classes started at its medical school satellite branch in Doha, the capital city of Qatar – the first overseas campus of any U.S.-based medical school.

Houry Tcheroyan, manager of the New York liaison for the Doha campus, said the emir of Qatar had met with Cornell administration and talked about duplicating the Ithaca, N.Y. campus in Education City, a zone of facilities outside the capital dedicated to research and teaching.

“The same services are provided, the same teaching is provided and the degree that students get in Doha is equivalent to the one you would get in the U.S.,” she added.

The University of California, on the other hand, has not investigated such possibilities.

“The UC is not considering campuses abroad,” said Hanan Eisenman, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President.

The recent increase in demand for American education services abroad could also be related to the post-Sept. 11, 2001 environment in the United States, which has seen fewer student visas issued to foreigners and longer waits for those lucky enough to obtain one.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the number of foreign graduate students applying to programs in the United States dropped significantly in 2004.

The survey, published by five higher education associations, found that the decline was most noticeable among the nation’s 25 leading research institutions – with 15 reporting drops of more than ten percent.

This decline – attributed by the survey to national security policies which have made these students feel unwelcome – could be fueling supply for education services provided within the home countries of these students.

But while the export of higher education services may benefit many countries in the process of developing stronger educated workforces, some experts warn that the trend of “academic capitalism” could have detrimental effects too.

“I am concerned about the degree to which academic capitalism sponsored by U.S. universities abroad becomes U.S. cultural colonialism,” Rhoads said.

The culture of a country tends to be imbedded in its universities and programs, he said, and might not be compatible in foreign countries without their own education structures and systems in place.

Rhoads added that an acceptable solution would be for Western universities to collaborate with higher education institutions in foreign countries, building positive global interactions.

And while going global with educational operations may be an emerging trend, Rhoads said such activity may be levelling off.

“Institutions are discovering that (these operations) are not as productive as some had hoped,” he said. “People are pulling back.”

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