The cradle of anglophone universities is?facing a challenge from one of the Commonwealth¡¯s most far-flung corners, with Charles Darwin University (CDU) unveiling plans to establish an outpost in London.

Australia¡¯s second-smallest public university plans to start recruiting Britons into a suite of postgraduate degrees ¨C tailored for ¡°busy professionals who want to advance their careers without putting life on hold¡± ¨C before opening a study centre in the East London district of Stratford next year.

Vice-chancellor Scott Bowman said it was a ¡°natural next step¡± for an institution that had spent decades honing its educational offerings for some of Australia¡¯s most remote communities. ¡°Many in the UK dream of experiencing Australia,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re offering a bridge, proudly becoming the first Australian university to establish a campus here.¡±

It is an audacious move for an institution that boasts about 13,000 students, annual earnings of about A$425 million (?208 million) and a global ranking in the 400-500 band. CDU is the lone university in a territory with a population equivalent to Plymouth¡¯s, scattered over an area larger than South Africa.

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It will be competing not only with local lights such as Imperial College London, UCL and LSE but also foreign aspirants including Boston¡¯s Northeastern University, Milan¡¯s New Academy of Fine Arts and the Dubai-founded SP Jain School of Global Management.

Overseas institutions setting up UK outposts face regulatory as well as competitive hurdles. Germany¡¯s IU International University of Applied Sciences and France¡¯s OMNES Education, which boast close to 200,000 students between them, are among the private education chains that reportedly struggled to establish operations in England after the Office for Students suspended the registration of new higher education providers last year. Although applications have now reopened, new institutions have long faced delays and difficulties getting on the register and achieving degree-awarding powers, with the backlog from the pause adding to the issues.?

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Bowman said these hurdles had not troubled CDU, which did not plan to issue British-accredited degrees ¨C initially, at any rate. Instead, the university would deliver Australian-badged postgraduate degrees in ¡°hyper-flexible¡± mode, where students could enrol 365 days a year and ¡°pace their own assessments¡±.

The first crop of degrees ¨C a master¡¯s in cyber security and MBAs in educational and health management ¨C will be delivered primarily by distance mode. Face-to-face ¡°masterclasses¡±, mainly on the weekend, will take place in the study centre. The programmes will be offered at a ¡°price point¡± of about ?12,000, compared with MBA fees between ?20,000 and ?120,000 at most British universities.

¡°An MBA is normally offered to someone when they can afford to do it, which is often very late in their career,¡± Bowman said. ¡°We¡¯re offering you an MBA when you need it, not when you can afford it.¡±

CDU specialised in distance learning long before the coronavirus pandemic forced most universities to pivot online. Last year, 49 per cent of its students studied by external mode and 46 per cent came from interstate. ¡°We have such a small population base in the Northern Territory, 250,000 [or] so,¡± Bowman said. ¡°We¡¯ve always had to¡­look outside the territory.¡±

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He said students would have the opportunity to spend up to 12 weeks in Australia, pursuing their studies at CDU¡¯s Darwin campus or tasting an ¡°immersive experience¡± in a remote indigenous community or cattle farm. ¡°These are going to be international degrees, but there will be an Australian flavour to them,¡± Bowman said. ¡°This is something that you really can¡¯t get anywhere else in the UK.¡±

CDU¡¯s governing council to focus on transnational education (TNE) early this year, after the federal government¡¯s crackdown on onshore international students stymied the university¡¯s plan to more than double its overseas enrolments.

Bowman, a British-born radiographer turned administrator with his own pilot¡¯s licence, has an expansionist mindset. Under his watch, Central Queensland University ¨C which he ran between 2009 and 2019 ¨C established the largest footprint of any university in Australia, with campuses or study centres in every mainland state.

He laid the groundwork for Australia¡¯s first university centre in Indonesia and worked with a Singapore branch campus during a stint as deputy vice-chancellor of James Cook University. But he said CDU had decided to head further afield for its TNE ¡°push¡±.

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Britain offered population density, an English-speaking population and familiar approaches to regulation, quality standards and qualification recognition. Legal practices were also similar, which helped with ¡°practical things¡± like leases.

¡°I¡¯ve¡­been involved with transnational for a long time and I am very cautious of it,¡± Bowman said. ¡°Some of the issues that I¡¯ve come across kind of disappear when you¡¯re operating in a place like the UK.¡±

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com