Education hubs and private higher education expansion in small island developing states contexts: The case of Mauritius

Abstract

Background: This article is located in the context of governments of small island developingstates supporting education hubs in collaboration with local and global partners. Whilstcurrent literature on the development of education hubs focuses on the macro policyperspectives looking at how education hub policies are designed and enacted upon at nationallevel, there are relatively few studies on the micro perspective of the institutions. Aim: By comparing the agendas, experiences, potential and drawbacks of theseinstitutions, the article explores the sustainability prospects of these variants ofeducation hubs. Methods: We selected three case studies: a public distance education university, a local privateuniversity and an international branch university within the same broader environmentalcontext to examine how a ‘vision of possibilities’ is played out within three different institutionalagendas. Results: The case studies reveal that marketisation and privatisation marginalise the pursuitof quality which recedes in preference for securing international economic resources to activatethe local developmental agendas and how the exercise privileges skewed power relationswhich maintain centre–periphery hegemonic hierarchies in the cross-border collaborations. Conclusion: The uptake of an education hub as a national target exemplifies how the uncriticaland indiscriminate borrowing of policies normalises and is reframed to appear as ‘moments ofequity’. But in reality it promotes individual competitiveness at the expense of the common good.