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Teaching students overseas ‘more vital than ever’, says DMU v-c

Ability to run courses and research in Leicester relies on income from international operations, leader warns after criticism of expansion plans

June 30, 2025
Jack Grove
Katie Normington
Katie Normington

Scaling back the teaching of students in overseas campuses in response to domestic financial pressures would be a mistake for UK universities given the immense economic and educational benefits derived from transnational education, the vice-chancellor of De Montfort University (DMU) has argued.

After facing criticism from staff for expanding abroad while cutting back at home, Katie Normington told 探花视频 that it was now more important than ever for her institution to operate globally.

DMU has campuses in Dubai, Cambodia and Kazakhstan in addition to its UK base in Leicester, with more than 12,000 students learning overseas once those taught through franchise and other agreements are included.

Income gained from overseas ventures is increasingly needed to support loss-making teaching and research activity in the UK, said Normington. “Like other UK universities, we are in a position where home student fees do not cover the costs of teaching and that fee is unlikely to rise much further in coming years,” she said.

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Domestic fees are set to?increase to ?9,535 a year?from September after a long freeze, but Universities UK analysis suggests this is still about ?3,000?short of the true cost?of educating undergraduates.

“International student numbers in the UK are also more volatile than ever…so if you want to support the range and breadth of what we do here then you need to think about how we do this,” Normington added.

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“Some universities can generate large commercial revenues from other activities such as conferencing, halls of residence or hotels [they own] – post-1992 universities don’t tend to have these facilities as we largely serve local students, but [at DMU] we do have a track record of success in transnational education lasting 30 years.”

Without the surplus generated from international activity, DMU would need to consider “cutting programmes with very low enrolments, affecting local students who would not have access to other opportunities, or thinking about how we support our seven research institutes”, said Normington.

The university is currently seeking to?save about ?8 million?which, according to an internal consultation, “could result in up to 80 roles being made redundant” despite having already found some ?17 million of savings in 2024-25.

Education group Study World has also accused DMU of an?“unlawful” termination of a partnership?in April 2024 which had seen it build and operate a previous Dubai campus – demonstrating some of the potential risks in developing such activity.

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Study World’s claims have been rejected as baseless by DMU, which insists that the deal, agreed under UK law, was terminated following multiple warnings over breaches – a scenario covered by the agreement. There is also a “firewall” in institutional spending to ensure investment in Dubai is funded by cash reserves, rather than efficiency savings in Leicester.

With DMU’s overseas student numbers likely to overtake home-educated students “within a few years”, the financial return from this activity was vitally important, but transnational education also aligned strongly with DMU’s historic educational mission of widening student access, said Normington.

“We are seeing huge growth in our global numbers, partly because we are operating in emerging economies who want the education that De Montfort offers. But we’re also taking it to audiences who could not benefit from it previously – there are, for instance, a very high proportion of women students on many of our campuses, and we’re also reaching out to those students whose families aren’t wealthy enough to send them to an international university,” she said.

Addressing internal criticism over its Dubai expansion, Normington added: “I can see it is difficult for people to understand why we are advertising for jobs in Dubai while we are restructuring. But our cash reserves – which are healthy – allow us to do this.”

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“When you start modelling the financial sustainability of UK universities [under current conditions] they are becoming less and less sustainable – either you accept that or think about what can be done differently,” she added.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com

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Reader's comments (15)

#1 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:08am
Normington has now had 4 no confidence votes including a unanimous no confidence vote from the professoriate over a failed and unlawful attempt to make mass redundancies to cover losses in Dubai. UK universities are tax exempt charities and need to focus on UK students, not on fools gold start up in countries that do not respect human rights. Under UK employment law, universities cannot lawfully "ringfence" or protect the jobs of underperforming academics while making more expensive, higher-performing staff redundant solely to increase profits, especially in a law school that is already running a surplus such as ?2 million. Legal and Procedural Requirements Redundancy Law: Redundancy must be genuine, meaning the role itself is no longer required, not that an individual is being targeted for reasons unrelated to the role's necessity. Selection for redundancy must be based on fair and objective criteria, such as skills, qualifications, experience, or disciplinary record—not arbitrary or discriminatory factors such as salary alone or performance without a fair process . Fair Selection: Universities must consult with affected staff and unions, and use transparent, consistent selection pools and criteria. If the process is manipulated to retain underperformers and target higher-paid, better-performing staff, this could be challenged as unfair dismissal or even discrimination. Normington needs sacking by OfS immediately as no one is willing to work with her and the professoriate has asked her to resign. Why is she not going? She is only an employee at the university? She has lied contrary to the Fraud Act 2006 and no revealed the financial position of individual schools at DMU to justify redundancies and is targetting people in schools that are millions in surplus, it is time for a judicial review of her bogus decisions. .
#2 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:16am
What upsets me as a student from a poor family is that my De Montfort fees are paying for a campus in Dubai that has state of the art facilities while library databases are being cut in Dubai and there has been a reduction of 80 percent of proper professors in some schools since 2021 meaning why pay 9500 per year to be taught by second rate staff who have no master's degree or PhD and have not reserach or peer reviewed publications. Yes, we pay Russell Group fees to get taught by non-academcis.
#3 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:22am
De Montfort's annual report states that 87 percent of all its income comes from UK student fees so the cash reserves used to give rich Dubai students a 700 seat auditorium and world class shiny library facilities is coming from increasing profits at the expense of UK students as the cash reserve is student money. They moved the Dubai campus in 2024 to another part of that territory from its original location in 2021 at a huge cost to Leicester students—all while cutting the library facilities and staff at De Monfort Leicester to the bone. Staff get no allowance to go to any academic conference, now hot desk and have to supply their own computer unless they want to use out-of-date Dells from the 2000s.
#4 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:25am
Katie Normington has lost the trust of the professoriate and no one will work with her going forward and she needs to follow a long line of vice chancellors who suffered no confidence votes and resign asap in the interests of the University and students. The reason Vice Chancellors are paid 5 times the salary of a professor is that they have to take responsibility and go when things go wrong. She has put 300 plus staff on redundancy at risk lists to get rid of 80 staff and still has many staff that do not want to work with her after she pulled a similar stunt in 2022. The 250 or so staff who will survive the redundancy this time will not work with her going forward and she seems to be in a world of her own not seeing facts or reality. It is no her private company and she must go and the Office for Students needs to audit the lawfunless of her sham redundancy campaign.
#5 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:32am
Katie Normington thus far has refused to give the loss and profit statements of the relevant schools in De Montfort Leicester where she is trying to make redundancies as she is required to do by section 3 of the Fraud Act 2006 which carries a 10 year jail sentence for those who attempt to cause loss by tricking people into take redundancy on incomplete information and false representations. The reason she is not releasing the profit and loss statements is that many schools are in surplus. The Law School made millions last year and produced the biggest portion of the University's 12.6 million surplus last year.
#6 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:38am
Everyone commenting on this story is aware of the Defamation Act 2013 and will only state facts, so hopefully this time the Vice Chancellor's office will not write to the THE and demand comments be removed that are the truth. ?43 million of UK fees to fund a start up in Dubai that is still losing ?6 per year nearly half a decade later with London losing ?3 million per year. THis is the worst financial management in a UK university I have ever seen and I have been working full time since the mid 1980s.
#7 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 7:38am
Yes removing comments from stories in news with threats is any free speech and OfS slammed Southampton Uni for such conduct.
#8 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 8:10am
It would be interesting to know why Katie Normington thinks employment law and other laws do not apply to her and her team and why she thinks she can ignore all the professors in the university. Will she address the letter from 176 students voting no confidence in her and demanding that the fees that put into the Leicester DMU's massive cash reserves be spent on them in Leicester. Will she publish that letter and apologise to the students who are working double shifts to put themselves through university while databases are cut at Leicester and library expansions stopped and libraries closed with all the staff being reduced to people who are no research active and are unable to provide research led teaching. Is Normington really proposing practitioners without a master's degree or PhD and no peer reviewed publications supervise PhD students? We lost most of our professors in 2022 and now they want to get rid of the few that a left as they earn more, but they bring far more value per pound spent on them than do the practitioner's not that Normington gets that.
#9 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 8:13am
Kazakhstan continues to face significant and persistent human rights abuses, with multiple independent organizations and international bodies documenting a troubling pattern of violations. Dubai, as part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is subject to widespread and systematic human rights abuses documented by international organizations and independent observers. It is problematic for a UK university to do business with a Dubai partner registered in a tax haven such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for several interrelated ethical, legal, and reputational reasons: 1. Lack of Transparency and Accountability Tax havens like the BVI are characterized by secrecy and a lack of effective information exchange. Companies registered there are often not required to disclose beneficial ownership or financial activities, making it difficult to trace who truly controls the entity and where the money flows . This opacity increases the risk of the university inadvertently facilitating or being associated with money laundering, tax evasion, or other illicit financial activities . 2. Undermining Tax Justice and Public Trust Tax havens enable corporate tax abuse and significant global tax losses. The use of such jurisdictions is a key factor in countries losing hundreds of billions in tax revenue annually, undermining public services and social trust . When a public institution like a UK university partners with entities in tax havens, it can be seen as complicit in these practices, contradicting the university’s role as a socially responsible and ethical actor.
#10 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 8:16am
TNE is resource-intensive and can be expensive to set up and manage, with significant regulatory and quality assurance challenges. The financial returns have been shown over and over to be a mirage.
#11 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 8:23am
DMU does not have a great track record with its leadership and board of governors. The fact that the current chair of the board of governors has chosen to ignore votes of no confidence in the leadership by the university professoriate and the DMU UCU branch membership, and instead send an email to all staff telling them to wind their necks in, suggests that the problem of poor governance persists.
#12 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 9:33am
Kazakhstan students are not taught by academics and it is an independent company running operations there and they pay DMU about ?1 per head meaning there is zero profit in it. Dubai is losing ?6 per year nearly half a decade later resulting in DMU having to sack 100s of staff and work the remaining staff 90 hour weeks to cover the increased work to cover the loss out there. It is "Voodoo economics". "The idea that a failing campus will somehow turn a profit is pure pipe dream — a kind of voodoo economics dressed up as strategic planning." Or more bluntly: "Believing this campus will make money one day is a fantasy rooted in denial, not data — classic voodoo economics." That aside, no jobs and quality ought not be cut at DMU Leicester do fund it. The students at Liecester are being ripped off as they are getting a budget deal but paying the full price. They are doing to barely see a professor soon and will have noting but staff educated to the bachelor's degree level teaching them. It is a disgrace. Libraries are being closed and assets sold off like there is no tomorrow at DMU. Staff used to have their own office but now mainly hot desk and the place is falling apart. Yet the VC is on 400k and living in London rather than deprived Leicester.
#13 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 9:33am
Kazakhstan students are not taught by academics and it is an independent company running operations there and they pay DMU about ?1 per head meaning there is zero profit in it. Dubai is losing ?6 per year nearly half a decade later resulting in DMU having to sack 100s of staff and work the remaining staff 90 hour weeks to cover the increased work to cover the loss out there. It is "Voodoo economics". "The idea that a failing campus will somehow turn a profit is pure pipe dream — a kind of voodoo economics dressed up as strategic planning." Or more bluntly: "Believing this campus will make money one day is a fantasy rooted in denial, not data — classic voodoo economics." That aside, no jobs and quality ought not be cut at DMU Leicester do fund it. The students at Liecester are being ripped off as they are getting a budget deal but paying the full price. They are doing to barely see a professor soon and will have noting but staff educated to the bachelor's degree level teaching them. It is a disgrace. Libraries are being closed and assets sold off like there is no tomorrow at DMU.
#14 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 9:36am
If it so profitable then stop cutting costs at Leicester and use cash reserves until the big money flows in.
new
#15 Submitted by ... on June 30, 2025 - 9:40am
David Normington and Ian Squires are both involved as colleagues at Birmingham Royal Ballet, both are involved in Shakespeare as is Katie Normington. It would be interesting to know the connections between these individuals and whether Ian Squires knew Katie Normington or ever had met her prior to her coming to DMU.

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