Can ARU’s global expansion agenda support its sustainability ambitions?

ARU recently launched a new 10-year strategy, establishing a roadmap for the University's core priorities. This blog explores how that strategy fits into the broader UK and international higher education landscape through a planetary health lens, with a particular focus on TNE and based on the understanding that planetary health views climate change as not merely an environmental issue but a public health challenge.

Adapting to a changing international market

In recent decades, an expanding global middle class has created a growing demand for perceived high-quality, internationally recognised education, even among those who could not afford to invest in the international student experience. Concurrently, education visa policy shifts in a post-Covid global economy have impacted international recruitment in countries such as the UK, USA, Canada and Australia who would expect to receive a number of international students. For example, across the UK, international enrolments are projected to drop by 30% for the 2026/27 academic year, pushing many UK universities into severe financial pressure.

In response, UK institutions are increasingly expanding their TNE provision, an umbrella term for UK degrees delivered in partnership with overseas institutions. ARU has a long history of successful TNE collaboration: its longest-running partnership, with SAM in Trinidad, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Building on this foundation, we launched two new partnerships in Sri Lanka in 2025, followed by new partnerships in Cairo, Pakistan, Singapore, and China in September 2026. Delivering qualifications locally expands ARU's global reach and, many could assume, presents as a low-carbon alternative.

Balancing competing priorities

In the new strategy, ARU aims to "build global partnerships that expand our reach and impact, driving social and economic improvement in the communities we serve". At the same time, we must "put sustainability at the heart of everything we do – across education, research, and operations – aligning our work with international sustainability goals and promoting climate, environmental, and social sustainability".

Our Planetary and Population Health Research Group looks to bridge the gap between environmental sustainability and human well-being, and thus are well placed to guide ARU on the strategic journey. Given that previous research into ARU student opinions highlights planetary health as a major priority, how can ARU align the global partnerships agenda against planetary health?

Is TNE environmentally sustainable?

Measuring the environmental sustainability for TNE provision is a complex process. Let's start by looking at where there is a larger amount of research: international students' travel to study. This has historically been the way students from outside the UK earn their UK degree.

Physical relocation to the UK brings substantial financial burden, but this has traditionally been offset against the benefits of developing social capital, building international networks, and earning an internationally recognised degree. It is estimated an international student's carbon footprint is 2.54 tonnes of CO2e higher than a domestic student's – the CO2 equivalent of a return flight from Heathrow to Delhi.

As TNE offers the internationally recognised degree without the international travel, it would be an easy conclusion to draw that it provides a low carbon alternative. However, quantifying this impact remains complex, as TNE often creates significant staff mobility.

Some partnerships require faculty members to travel abroad multiple times a year for block teaching, and ARU staff also commonly travel to partner campuses for quality assurance purposes, as well as appearances at graduation ceremonies and research conferences. As a result, carbon emissions are often simply shifted from student relocation to routine academic travel, albeit with different numbers of people undertaking international trips.

Wider benefits of TNE

In addition to the carbon footprint modelling, we also need to know more about the social and economic impacts of TNE. Advocates of TNE have suggested it can provide the same development opportunities for individual student capacities as physical mobility, whilst also developing institutional capacity overseas and contributing to local socio-economic impact. Studies in longitudinal impacts of TNE are scarce but are beginning to develop.

To measure the environmental impact and its contribution to the sustainability of TNE is therefore a complex issue, but one we believe needs more investigation as TNE as a delivery model continues to grow. For example, TNE approvals between UK and Chinese institutions increased from 11 to 50 between May 2025 and May 2026 alone. Developing research will offer further insights into the place of TNE within the wider planetary health paradigm.

Dr Biniam Ashagre, Deputy Head of School of Engineering and the Built Environment, and Dr Lauren Crabb, Director of International, Apprenticeships and Partner Colleges.