Cardiff green-lights Kazakhstan campus despite job cuts at home

Cardiff University is set to go ahead with plans to open a new outpost in Kazakhstan despite axing hundreds of jobs in the face of a multimillion-pound deficit.

University leaders have emphasised that the institution is not investing any capital in the venture, nor is it outsourcing jobs to the Central Asian country. 

In a joint statement, Cardiff’s vice-chancellor and council chair said that the proposal to open a new outpost has been approved “after extensive discussions”, reflecting the university’s “ambition to play a full and meaningful role in the future of global higher education”. 

The university also has other transnational education (TNE) plans “in the pipeline” in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the US, the statement said. 

Wendy Larner, the vice-chancellor, and Pat Younge, the chair of council, attempted to allay concerns about the impact of the venture on the cash-strapped home campus, confirming that the university was not paying for a new campus or making staff redundant and then offering them contracts in Kazakhstan. 

The university posted a £31.2 million deficit for 2023-24 and in February it announced that 400 academic full-time-equivalent academic roles are set to go, leading to protests from union members. 

For some universities, opening new outposts abroad is seen as a way to diversify their funding streams and mitigate against immigration policy changes that could result in reduced income from international student fees.

On such ventures it is common for universities to partner with private companies in a profit-sharing arrangement. These entail the latter fronting the capital for a new campus, thus reducing the financial risk to the institution. 

Cardiff University leaders described the venture as a “reciprocal and mutually beneficial initiative”. However, they acknowledged that “establishing transnational education is not without risk”.

The university will take an “incremental approach”, initially establishing two foundation programmes in 2025 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, with plans to expand in future. 

Universities can also profit from branch campuses through articulation arrangements, where students begin their studies in their home country before transferring to the institution’s main campus abroad, where they pay international student fees.

Other British universities have also expressed interest in expanding into Kazakhstan, including Coventry University, which opened a campus there in October 2024. Leaders of the Central Asian country have previously offered financial incentives to institutions to encourage them to invest.

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com