China is expanding its presence in universities across the Gulf states, helping it to increase its influence in the region and attract students at the expense of institutions in the US and elsewhere. David Roberts, senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, said China had engaged a lot with Gulf universities – including on exchange trips, academic visits and supporting Mandarin programmes. Dr Roberts said he suspected this was a growing trend, and was perhaps evidence of China trying to exert its influence in the Gulf – though that was not necessarily a “nefarious” thing. The Gulf had formerly been dominated by prestigious Western universities, with a dozen US universities setting up branch campuses in recent years, said Dr Calabrese. “One can regard these higher education activities as efforts by China to deploy soft power,” Dr Calabrese said.
