Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
Global

Berkeley Plans to Build a Global Campus, 10 Miles From Home

By Madeline Will January 22, 2015

The University of California at Berkeley plans to open a global campus, but it intends to do so without going very far from home. Under the plan, partner universities from around the world would set up shop at a new outpost just 10 miles from Berkeley’s main campus.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

The University of California at Berkeley plans to open a global campus, but it intends to do so without going very far from home. Under the plan, partner universities from around the world would set up shop at a new outpost just 10 miles from Berkeley’s main campus.

The Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay, campus officials say, will offer a “global citizenship” curriculum—with a focus on topics like governance, ethics, health, and sustainability—for graduate students from the United States and abroad.

By situating the campus nearby—an unusual move in an era when many American institutions are building abroad—Berkeley hopes to establish partnerships with universities from around the world while preserving full academic freedom for its faculty.

It’s a hefty undertaking. The campus’s development manager, Terezia C. Nemeth, said it would take years—possibly decades—and hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill the university’s vision. It’s unclear where the money will come from. Nils Gilman, an associate chancellor at Berkeley, said the university was pursuing a range of options, including philanthropic donations and federal and state funds. Partner universities would also bring their own money to the project.

Mr. Gilman said Berkeley officials were “quite far down the road” in talks with several potential partner universities in Europe and Asia. Those universities had been chosen, by and large, because of previous collaborations with Berkeley and its faculty, he said.

The university would not name any of those institutions. But Nicholas B. Dirks, Berkeley’s chancellor, said he hoped to announce the initial partner universities this year, if not this month.

After that, and once enough money is raised, the university will break ground on the global campus, which sits by the bay in Richmond, Calif., about an hour’s drive from Silicon Valley. Berkeley already maintains some research facilities on the site.

An Academic ‘Safe Harbor’

Berkeley’s branch-campus concept has international precedents, said Jason E. Lane, co-director of the Cross-Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany, but it hasn’t been seen before in the United States. Comparable education hubs in other nations, like Qatar’s Education City, have generally been sponsored by governments, not the institutions themselves.

“You’re bringing the world to you instead of being out in the world,” Mr. Lane said.

That shift, he said, comes with a cost: American students and faculty members who participate might miss the broader experience of being immersed in a foreign culture and environment. “You’re losing out on all the experiences one gains from being embedded in a branch campus overseas,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

That could hold true for foreign students as well. Many of those students might not have the opportunity or resources to study in the United States, Mr. Lane said. They’d be more likely to enroll at a branch campus in their own country.

Still, Berkeley officials argue that there’s a compelling reason to put the global campus on American ground: the chance to create a true safe harbor with protections for academic freedom, human rights, political activism, and intellectual property.

Many overseas branch campuses have, in fact, been dogged by concerns over the academic freedom of their faculty members. In one high-profile example, professors at Yale University objected to an overseas partnership with the National University of Singapore, passing a resolution that expressed “concern regarding the history of lack of respect for civil and political rights” in Singapore.

“If you have a researcher who’s doing research on Country X and the government is not happy with it, what kinds of protections do you have as a faculty member working in that environment?,” Mr. Gilman asked. “By doing it here, there’s no question about that. You’ll have all the benefits of working at Berkeley, and when their faculty come here, they’ll have all those protections as well.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Mr. Dirks said that when he pitched the idea of a global campus to university leaders in China, they brought up the safe-harbor issue before he did. “They said, ‘This would give our faculty an opportunity to engage in discussions about certain kinds of things in a context where academic freedom is ensured,’” he said.

The campus’s main goal, Mr. Dirks said, is to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to global problems like climate change, income inequality, epidemic diseases, and the need for new forms of sustainable energy.

Who will participate in that work may change over time. Initially, Mr. Gilman said, the branch campus will focus on graduate students. An early tenant of the campus will be a two-year, residential scholarship program, modeled on the University of Oxford’s prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

Graduate students from around the world who receive the scholarships would spend their first year studying a general, interdisciplinary global-citizenship curriculum. In their second year, they would pursue an individual track, like sustainability or global health. (The program could start before buildings appear on the global campus, Mr. Gilman said.)

ADVERTISEMENT

But Berkeley plans eventually to make the campus a home for undergraduate research as well.

It’s not yet certain how degrees would be administered. At first, Mr. Gilman said, students will probably earn dual degrees from Berkeley and a partner university. Eventually, they might receive stand-alone degrees from the Berkeley Global Campus.

Berkeley and its institutional partners will be equals in the project, collaborating to develop academic curricula and research plans, Mr. Gilman said.

“Berkeley, as a public university in the State of California, is absolutely committed to providing value to and access to Californians,” he said, but “we also realize that being a great university has to involve going global.”

“No university, not even Harvard with their huge endowment, has the resources to cover everything in all topics,” he said. “You’re going to have to form alliances with other universities.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
International Campus Culture
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Vector illustration of large open scissors  with several workers in seats dangling by white lines
Iced Out
Duke Administrators Accused of Bypassing Shared-Governance Process in Offering Buyouts
Illustration showing money being funnelled into the top of a microscope.
'A New Era'
Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding
Illustration showing classical columns of various heights, each turning into a stack of coins
Endowment funds
The Nation’s Wealthiest Small Colleges Just Won a Big Tax Exemption
WASHINGTON, DISTICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES - 2025/04/14: A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator holding a sign with Release Mahmud Khalil written on it, stands in front of the ICE building while joining in a protest. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the ICE building, demanding freedom for Mahmoud Khalil and all those targeted for speaking out against genocide in Palestine. Protesters demand an end to U.S. complicity and solidarity with the resistance in Gaza. (Photo by Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Campus Activism
An Anonymous Group’s List of Purported Critics of Israel Helped Steer a U.S. Crackdown on Student Activists

From The Review

John T. Scopes as he stood before the judges stand and was sentenced, July 2025.
The Review | Essay
100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom
By John K. Wilson
Vector illustration of a suited man with a pair of scissors for a tie and an American flag button on his lapel.
The Review | Opinion
A Damaging Endowment Tax Crosses the Finish Line
By Phillip Levine
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin