Coventry University is planning to open a second campus in Kazakhstan, following rapid growth at its first site in the capital, Astana.

The institution was the first British university to open in the Central Asian country in 2024 and said its first site has since expanded from an initial intake of 95 students to 428.

Announcing plans to grow student numbers still further to 3,500, Coventry said it will open another site in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, in partnership with Primus Education LLP.

The proposal was endorsed this week by the Kazakh minister of science and higher education, Sayasat Nurbek, during a visit to Coventry’s city centre campus in the UK.

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The proposed expansion comes against a broader backdrop of rapid internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan. In May 2025, Nurbek told ̽����Ƶ that Kazakhstan had attracted record numbers of foreign university branch campuses, including outposts from the UK, Italy, China, the US, France and South Korea, and was no longer actively seeking new ones for now, having “filled the map”.

Miras Daulenov, president of Coventry University Kazakhstan, said the decision to locate the second campus in Almaty reflected the city’s industrial base and regional links.

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“We met with leaders and companies in Almaty which is more industrious than Astana and has good links to China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,” said Daulenov. “We will be able to help with electrical engineering, construction management, artificial intelligence and civil engineering, as well as encouraging companies from Central Asia to come to us.

“It is our ambition to establish a leading British university focusing on engineering and artificial intelligence in Central Asia.”

Daulenov said the Astana campus had expanded more quickly than expected. “Our students are really talented and 95 per cent received offers from foreign universities but came to us with the chance to study in Kazakhstan,” he said.

“Our faculty is growing and they have experience with other universities, publications in journals and we will soon have our first patent for Coventry University Kazakhstan. This is what we have done in just 21 months and we also want to expand in Astana and be the only institution with campuses in two cities.”

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John Latham, Coventry’s vice-chancellor and group CEO, said the planned second campus reflected ongoing cooperation with the Kazakh government. “Opening a second campus in Kazakhstan will allow more and more talented people to benefit from our high-quality teaching as we continue creating better futures for students right across the globe,” said Latham.

The planned expansion comes as the Coventry University Group reported a near £60 million deficit in its latest accounts, largely reflecting reduced income from international tuition fees and higher recruitment costs. It has stressed it is “on the path to recovery”.

The latest announcement comes amid a flurry of UK universities expanding their presence abroad, particularly in Asia, amid a more hostile climate for onshore international students.

This week, the University of Huddersfield signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s Thammasat University covering shared academic programmes, postgraduate research and staff and student exchanges.

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The agreement, signed in Bangkok, sets out plans for collaboration on PhD co-supervision, curriculum development and joint research.

tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com