What China's new campus in Europe means for its ambitions to compete in global Higher Education

According to QS World University Rankings, Fudan is the 34th best university globally. With its Budapest satellite campus, it will bring the reputation of a higher education institution to Hungary that is ranked higher than any other university in the EU, and would be a Top 10 university in Europe, even if we took into consideration British and Swiss universities. Thus, Fudan University’s move to Europe might have far-reaching consequences that could signal the start of significant changes in European academia. Namely, if Fudan’s project in Hungary turns out to be a success, we can expect that other prestigious Chinese universities will follow suit.

Traditionally, Western universities have established satellite campuses in mainland China, including NYU, Duke University, UC Berkeley from the United States, or the Universities of Liverpool and Nottingham from the United Kingdom. It has been a beneficial set-up for both parties. Western universities could directly tap from the vast Chinese higher education market's talent pool, while China could benefit from the high standards these institutions brought to its higher education.

However, for the last decade, China invested heavily into its own universities and has seen them steadily climb up the rankings, becoming top schools globally. With Fudan University’s Budapest campus, Chinese academia demonstrates that it is maturing and shows a willingness and capability to play a greater role internationally.

Naturally, Fudan University’s project in Hungary is an ambitious one. When it reaches its full-scale operations, 500-600 faculty and staff members will support 6,000 students who will study in English language on a 64 acres campus with a 520,000 square meter built-up area, including residential accommodation for 2,500-3,000 students. The development will cost approximately 1.8 billion USD and is financed by Chinese loans and the Hungarian government.

Initially, four faculties will be established: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, Public and Business Management, Medical Science, which will provide programmes, among others, in data science and artificial intelligence, international relations and geopolitics, ‘communication engineering’, management studies and medical sciences.

The Budapest campus will open in 2024 and it is expected that it will reach its full capacity and finalise the full campus construction three years later. Until the campus opens in 2024, Fudan University has already been offering joint degree programmes with Hungarian universities.

The very fact that a Chinese university is establishing a campus in the EU is a huge milestone, and another sign that China has become a key global competitor in the education industry. Fudan will undoubtably be able to recruit highly talented students internationally to its Budapest campus, given its offer of globally competitive degrees, state of the art university infrastructure and a more affordable cost of living in Hungary than in Western European countries.

In addition, as the Budapest campus will be registered in Hungary and will provide Hungarian accredited degrees, Fudan will be able to compete for EU research funds and establish close scientific cooperation with EU universities as well. For Fudan University the benefits of a campus in the EU are obvious, whilst the funding of this project does not seem to be an issue.

This unique Chinese-European setting will likely appeal to international students and will offer an alternative for Chinese students. Especially for those Chinese students who want to study in the West but after graduation return to China, or want to use Fudan’s Budapest campus as a stepping stone to finding a job in Western Europe. Studying at the Budapest campus would also provide more security and be less of a culture shock compared to studying in other Western European countries and the US, where anti-Asian sentiments are rising.

Of course, Fudan’s Budapest campus per se will not change the higher education dynamics in Europe. However, if Fudan’s project in Hungary becomes a successful model, there is a high chance that other globally competitive Chinese universities might follow Fudan’s example and will establish campuses in the EU. EU countries without domestically highly ranked universities might be eager to host them as bringing a Chinese campus to their country could improve their research and education capacities. This could result in a reversal of the recent trend of exporting Western campuses to China, in a few years, UK and EU universities might find themselves competing for Chinese and European students with Chinese universities in their own backyard.

Dr Bence Nemeth is a Teaching Fellow in the Defence Studies Department, King's College London. 

This commentary is part of a broader cooperation effort between the Lau China Institute and the School of Security Studies of King’s College London.

The author wants to thank Camelia Zhu of the United Kingdom Education Centre (UKEC) for her comments on a previous draft of this article.