Warwick had come to the same conclusion. When, in 2005, it rejected the Singapore government's invitation to set up a Singapore campus, the government and the local media tried to make it sound as if the final decision was based on financial (in)feasibility alone
Now Singapore and the UNSW have found out the hard way that it isn't so simple. If a university draws students not just on its brand name alone, but also in terms of its "geography", as Hilmer put it, then the pull of that brand name will not work its magic when transplanted into Singapore.
In other words, one cannot separate financial feasibility from socio-political geography.
The "Singapore" brand has suffered yet another blow.
In the end, universities should not be treated just as entreprise.
Students trust UNSW Asia because it was in Singapore where our government have been efficient. They have placed time and money in UNSW and in the end, there was no one could help them.
only they have themselves.
Now, the trust was broken.