Michigan State University (MSU Dubai) is one of several foreign universities in Dubai that have recently set up a branch campus in the UAE without the student numbers they were hoping for, raising question marks about finance for the new adventures. A report in the Lansing State Journal of Michigan, USA, dated 09 November 2009 detailed some of the planned and revised numbers for MSU Dubai:
- “We have not met the enrollment targets of our original model,” said Brendan Mullen, executive director of the Dubai campus of Michigan State University.
- Initially, 600 students were expected by 2012, the number needed to break even.
- In 2009, MSU Dubai has about 100 students, and about 170 have applied for entry.
- Only 9 out of 47 classes have more than 10 students.
- MSU spent $7 million on the Dubai campus in 2008, made up of a $2.7 million grant from the Dubai government, a $2.5 million loan from TECOM Investments, of which $1.6 million is still owed. Another $1.5 million is being covered by the Dubai partners of MSU Dubai (Tecom?).