Edwin Eisendrath
Managing Director
Huron Consulting Group
Colleges and universities can be entrepreneurial too. Himself a co-founder of UNext and Cardean, Edwin Eisendrath advises U.S. colleges and universities when they have expansion plans, particularly overseas.
What usually stimulates a U.S. campus to want to expand overseas?
Vision is a principal reason. Also, there's often an invitation, expected or unexpected, that stimulates desire. With many internal constituencies, there can be numerous other motives on a campus. Faculty members may see new opportunities for research. Business officers may see new revenue opportunities. A successful international expansion for any organization is complicated. For a university with multiple stakeholders, it takes experienced hands.
Once you're engaged as an expansion advisor, do your conversations dwell more on the upside opportunities or the downside risks?
The first thing we do is identify the details, and that usually begins with a financial model. Once we have a clear picture we can discuss upside and downside.
What campuses have succeeded overseas, and by what success criteria?
Many have succeeded, but not by every criterion. University of Chicago's Booth School of Business did well in Barcelona for years. By several measures it was a success. It attracted students, and they learned and graduated. It made money. Yet, they closed the campus and moved it. The faculty were unsatisfied by the research opportunities there.
What other schools have succeeded?
Education City in Doha, Qatar is a success on many levels for Texas A&M, Carnegie-Mellon, Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth and Northwestern. The next campus opening there is IIT, an engineering university from India. Success did not come easy for any of them, but it continues to come to each of them. Laureate has had remarkable campus-based success in Mexico, Chile, Turkey, Cyprus and the company is on the move in numerous locations in Asia.
Is expansion overseas an internet opportunity or a bricks-and-mortar opportunity?
There are certainly exceptions, but it's still a bricks-and-mortar opportunity. The online fortunes are mostly unproven overseas.
What domestic opportunities exist for entrepreneurial campuses?
The vast presence of pooled private capital that has created strong for-profit brands suggests to me that there is likely a pool of private philanthropic capital that will create national nonprofit brands. I viewed Drexel as an early mover, but they may be stalled by the death of their entrepreneurial president. For domestic liberal arts education though, a national nonprofit brand would have real opportunities.
Will brand differentiation remain a strength mastered principally by the for-profit industry segment?
I don't believe the profit-makers have a corner on brand strength. For one reason, brands are often directed at different audiences. For example, research universities measure brand strength based on how often and how well their researchers are cited by other researchers. University of Phoenix measures its brand strength in terms of consumer awareness.
What do you expect to occur in the next five years?
Further globalization will occur. The dominant U.S. model of higher education will face new challenges. And I see U.S. universities responding to those challenges in interesting ways.
More interviews from Entrepreneur Week.