Amid the brouhaha that arose in July surrounding the tie-up between Thunderbird, the US business school, and Laureate, a for-profit online education company, one nugget stood out for me.
Thunderbird agreed a sale and leaseback agreement with Laureate for the Arizona campus – this was one of the issues that outraged alumni. But there is a proviso in the 20-year lease stating that “alumni may repurchase the campus within the first two years of the lease”. In other words, dear alumni, pay up or shut up.
The deal marks a watershed for schools that want global influence. On the surface, the partnership is about transforming education for online delivery, to enable Thunderbird to reach parts of the world unachievable from the Arizona desert. But there is a more fundamental issue: who is going to pay for it?