Dive Brief:
- Texas A&M will spend about $6 million to open a marine research center in Israel on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea, scrapping plans for a $200 million campus in Nazareth.
- The Houston Chronicle reports there were problems from the beginning with the initial choice of a partner for A&M's campus dedicated to peace in the Middle East, Nazareth Academic Institute, and Israeli officials wanted greater control over curriculum than Texas A&M leaders were willing to give.
- The marine center, a partnership with the University of Haifa, will host a Mediterranean observatory to start and campus leaders expect to grow the partnership into a broader research consortium.
Dive Insight:
Opening branch campuses in foreign countries is often a difficult proposition, given the cultural and political differences that mark education systems. The university system in the United States is one of the most open and dedicated to a level of academic freedom few faculty would be willing to give up abroad.
In Qatar, a number of institutions have found a home in Education City, where faculty insist they have the same academic freedoms they would have here, though students run up against cultural differences in programs. The board of directors at the University of Virginia rejected a plan to become Education City's first occupant in 1999.