The offshore branches of US universities located in Dubai failed to attract enough qualified students despite offering substantial discounts in tuition fees, claims a recently published report in the New York Times.

Dubai-based US Michigan State University has been leaving no stone unturned to woo international students by adopting a large number of students marketing measures and offering huge discounts.

The US paper quoting Brendan Mullan, Executive Director of Michigan State Dubai, stated, “Nobody could have anticipated the global meltdown, which has certainly had a negative effect on our student marketing.”

However, he said that the university has no plan to move from Dubai despite a large number of challenges ahead.

Mullan added, “We are not compromising on quality, even if that means it takes us longer to gain traction here. We’re not just going to be a teaching storefront here; we’re going to have significant research capacity, and our commitment to Dubai is unyielding.”

Same is the case of the Dubai branch of Rochester Institute of Technology, which managed to secure admissions of just 50 students. However, such conditions failed to tarnish the image of the Abu Dhabi's base as an educational hub and the prestigious New York University is determined to set up its off-shore campus in the emirate next autumn.