Adapting educational practice at international branch campuses

An article on branch campuses around the world by Lane and Kinser in the Chronicle of Higher Education quoted a finding of a UNESCO report that "no single type of foreign university can, in itself, meet the aspirations for the [local] people for social and economic development. Each country has its own genius and its societal characteristics. Its institutions must bear the stamps of those special characteristics." The experience of Qatar working with Education City most assuredly affirms this conclusion but Lane and Kinser's assertion later in their article that Qatar and the UAE "should be considering the local implications of welcoming foreign institutions to their shores," is bizarre. Having worked with the branch universities in Qatar and having worked diligently with colleagues to adapt practice in the local context, it would not have taken much research for Lane and Kinser to use Qatar as an example of what UNESCO advocates rather than a case about which they would offer advice.