COMMENT | Universities have been slow to globalise.

In the late 1980s there were only 30 or so international campuses: students moved, universities didn’t.

Things started to change in the early 1990s and the following twenty years witnessed a mini-boom in international higher education operations.

The pace has slowed in the past decade — a steady stream of failures has prompted caution — but the number of global campuses continues to grow.

Recent estimates range from about 250 to almost 500 overseas campuses from universities based elsewhere.

The higher number probably includes one- or two-room operations within a host university; the lower number is more reflective of what we expect when we talk about a “campus”.

Universities from developed economies have...