Higher-ed board approves ASU’s Mexico-campus plans

The Mexico campus of Arkansas State University is one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to the approval Friday of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board.



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ASU leaders traveled in February to the site for the proposed campus - which will be located in Queretaro, Mexico, and is to open in fall 2015 - to join more than 2,000 government, education and business leaders to celebrate the completion of construction plans.

The $50 million, privately funded campus will be the first U.S. public university in Mexico. The venture was made possible by the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Education, which acquired about 2,000 acres for a large-scale development plan that will include Arkansas State University as its focal point.

ASU Chancellor Tim Hudson told the Higher Education Board on Friday that the college is helping to create a “sustainable democracy” in Mexico.

Classes at the institution all will be taught in English by instructors hired by ASU administration but paid by the Mexican foundation, Hudson said. The foundation will have ownership of the brick and-mortar campus, but the operation and curriculum will be administered by the college in Arkansas.

Hudson said ASU officials estimated that about 5,000 students would be enrolled on the Mexico campus within 10 years. “But they laughed at us,” he said, adding that the partners in Mexico expect the student body to reach more than 20,000 by that time.

The student count will be kept separate from the numbers reported for the Arkansas campuses and will not figure into the funding formulas, Hudson said.

ASU System President Charles Welch said in a news release that the expansion is extraordinary for the university.

“We have worked hard to create a partnership that minimizes risk yet maximizes benefits for Arkansas State, Mexico, and, most of all, students,” Welch said.

ASU will use funds generated from private gifts for the start-up costs, and the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Education will cover any operating deficits for up to three years after the beginning of classes. ASU will receive a percentage of the revenue.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 04/26/2014

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