The establishment would be the first international college to obtain a Saudi Funding License below the nation’s 2030 imaginative and prescient, opening its Saudi Arabia campus in Riyadh within the second half of 2025.
The college will start by providing English language programs, adopted by undergraduate levels in 2027.
UOW World Enterprises (UOWGE), which manages the establishment’s international enlargement, mentioned that the transfer marks a major improvement, as being given the Saudi Funding License displays the power of the college’s status as a trusted international training companion.
With over 30,000 college students finding out throughout 9 campuses all through Australia and Dubai, together with training partnerships in Malaysia and Singapore, UOW has grown from a small faculty serving native trade to a big worldwide college.
However regardless of the “main step” in its worldwide technique, UOW acknowledged that the announcement comes at a “advanced second” for the worldwide training sector in Australia because it grapples with “shifting coverage situations”.
UOW has been notably laborious hit by sweeping visa coverage adjustments. After being one of many first universities in Australia to announce widespread job losses as a result of federal authorities’s tightening of worldwide college students’ visas again in January, UOW’s $21 million annual redundancy plan left dozens of employees members combating for his or her posts.
That is about making certain our long-term power – each right here and internationally – by drawing on the distinctive functionality we’ve inbuilt offshore training
Eileen McLaughlin, UOW
UOW interim vice-chancellor and president, senior professor Eileen McLaughlin, mentioned that the choice is a part of a broader technique to construct resilience and international relevance.
“That is about making certain our long-term power – each right here and internationally – by drawing on the distinctive functionality we’ve inbuilt offshore training,” she added.
UOW acknowledged that the funding shall be funded by the UOWGE, out of the obtainable money reserves from income generated by its international operations. No funding is offered by UOW Australia.
This enlargement is part of a method to diversify the income and scale back reliance on home revenue streams which might be more and more constrained by authorities insurance policies.
“Saudi Arabia’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 locations training on the coronary heart of nationwide transformation. We consider within the energy of training to form social progress, and we’re proud to be a part of that evolution,” mentioned Marisa Mastroianni, UOWGE CEO and managing director.
