Cardiff University confirms Kazakhstan campus will go ahead
Cardiff University has green-lit plans for a branch campus Photo cred: Wikimedia Commons
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The university has approved plans to open a branch campus in Astana, launching with two foundation programmes in 2025 and aiming to expand based on local needs.
This move is part of Cardiff’s broader transnational education strategy, with future projects being considered in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the US
The university emphasises there is no capital investment or job outsourcing
Cardiff University has approved plans to launch a branch campus in Kazakhstan.
Cardiff University’s council has given the green light to create the branch campus in the country’s capital city, Astana.
According to the University, the plan is to start by offering two foundation programmes in 2025, and build a portfolio as they “understand the needs of the Kazakh people and how these align with our academic strengths”.
The announcement, which is made by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wendy Larner and Chair of Council, Pat Younge, comes after “extensive discussions” and is subject to “a final legal agreement”
The written announcement said: “The decision to move ahead reflects our ambition to play a full and meaningful role in the future of global higher education, delivering high quality degree programmes in a range of countries, in line with our strategy, Our future, together.
“Transnational education on this scale is a new endeavour for us, and it will extend our global reach and reputation, as well as diversifying our income. It signals our ambition to make an impact across the world and is the first in a network of new transnational education opportunities being explored, with others in the pipeline in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.”
Not paying for a campus or redundancies but “not without risk”
Kazakhstan is a country the size of Western Europe which was part of the former Soviet Union, and is diverse with a large Russian minority in the north.
Since independence, major investment in the oil sector has brought rapid economic growth, and eased some of the stark disparities in wealth of the 1990s, according to the BBC.
There is, however, a bigger picture.
According to Human Rights Watch, Kazakhstan has recently failed to address past human rights violations including from the January 2022 protests, where “few officials have been held accountable for their part in disproportionate use of force against protesters, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.”
On the campus, the University’s statement added that “establishing transnational education is not without risk” but that they had worked with international and local experts to understand local politics, society and culture as long as making “extensive due diligence and risk assessments”.
It added: “We want to reiterate some key messages, because there has been a lot of misinformation about this venture: we are not investing any capital in this venture, we are not paying for a campus, we are not making staff redundant and then offering them a contract in Kazakhstan, and we are not outsourcing jobs there.”
The news comes after Cardiff University announced plans to cuts 400 jobs and possibly close courses such to address a funding shortfall.
