London links ‘crucial’ for multi-campus European college

A private college offering degrees awarded by the University of London (UoL) is expanding to Berlin after growing applications fivefold in three years.

Forward College founder Boris Walbaum, a former higher education consultant, French state auditor and government adviser, told Times Higher Education that the three-year-old provider owed its growth to the London brand.

The Paris- and Lisbon-based college, which teaches business-related social sciences programmes designed by the London School of Economics, will begin teaching from Berlin in October, with students spending a year in each capital.

When it launched in 2021, Forward received 300 applications, and that number had risen to 1,800 by 2023. Dr Walbaum said the London brand was “absolutely crucial” to that growth.

“I don’t think starting without this brand would have been possible at the level of selection that we targeted. Obviously, we could have a cohort of 500 students, but not the students that we would want,” he added, noting that Forward received 18 applications for every place.

Tuition fees for a bachelor’s degree start at €17,000 (£14,500) a year, with just over £2,000 of that going directly to London, which provides course design, exam supervision and grading, tasks shared among the LSE and King’s College London.

The private college offers scholarships and zero-interest loans, and about 40 per cent of students receive some form of financial assistance. Aside from fees, it has bagged €12 million in investment, which has gone on campuses, hiring faculty and marketing.

Dr Walbaum said the point of difference between Forward and other multi-campus providers in Europe was the mix of traditional social sciences teaching and innovative skills development it offered, while shifting cohorts between capitals was intended to produce the “most intense experience” for learning.

The young provider now has feet in three crowded markets, but Dr Walbaum said it is not there to attract locals. “We are located here because these are attractive cities for students, not because we think there is a local market there,” he said.

Higher education experts told THE that Forward had attracted a good calibre of student so far, and Dr Walbaum said many of its cohort had turned down offers from Russell Group universities and private rivals, such as Milan’s Bocconi University.

The college has just recruited Phil Allmendinger, the former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Bath, as a chief academic officer, and it talks of having 10,000 students learning at its sites – including campuses outside Europe – by 2030.

To stay selective while expanding, Forward will need to build its own reputation and out-compete well-established business and management schools. “At this stage, we are fully focused on building our reputation, not growth,” said Dr Walbaum.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com