George Mason U. Will Close Its Campus in the Persian Gulf

by E Wayne Ross on February 27, 2009

The Chronicle News Blog: George Mason U. Will Close Its Campus in the Persian Gulf

George Mason University has decided to shut down its branch campus in the Persian Gulf emirate of Ras al Khaymah, after its local partners drastically slashed the campus’s operating budget while expecting the university to nearly double the number of students enrolled at the campus, the university’s provost said Thursday.

Inside Higher Ed: Gulf Withdrawal

It’s the kind of story that could have come straight out of Peter Stearns’ new book. Discussing the potential pitfalls of setting up branch campuses in foreign lands, the George Mason University provost strikes a sober tone:

“This is difficult terrain, with a shaky past; caution is abundantly justified,” Stearns writes in Educating Global Citizens in Colleges and Universities: Challenges and Opportunities.