Sometimes we use words and expressions without due regard to their real meaning. We just coin phrases like knowledge hub, seafood hub and university campuses as though Mauritius is at the centre of the world. If we look at what some countries are doing to establish themselves as education hubs we will realize how far we are from our objective.

Two well-known UK Universities and three Australian ones, in addition to the home Universities, have set up real campuses in Malaysia, transforming it into a high demand destination for higher studies there. The University of Nottingham, the first well-known UK university to set up a campus in Malaysia in 1999, has moved into its new 100 acre campus offering a wide range of courses to 4,500 students , with more than 1,600 students coming from 75 foreign countries. The campus with a 20,000 m2 built area consists of not only classrooms but also state-of-the-art facilities such as modern lecture theatres, laboratories, a comprehensive library and an IT resource centre. In addition it has student accommodation, a café, sports facilities and other amenities.

The other UK University is that of Newcastle which is a medical studies university, and the three Australian ones are Monash, Curtin and Swinburne University of Technology. Malaysia is building a new Edu-City with shared facilities to encourage other brand names in higher education to set up campuses there. It is all this which has made it become a hub for higher education in Asia.

Singapore has opted for a different model as it already has two top national universities, the National University of Singapore with 33,000 students and Nanyang Technological University with 30,000 students. These Universities already have collaborative ventures with the best Universities in the world like Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale. In fact MIT has been ranked first in the world among universities in the world in a study carried out for The Guardian and published a couple of weeks ago. A new University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, has been set up with the collaboration of MIT (USA) and Zhejang University (China) to show the increasing importance given to design in a fast changing world environment.

There is also an innovative concept concerning distance learning and lifelong education. The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), a private institution which has been busy in these areas for a long time has been transformed into an Open University (SIM University) by the Singapore government. It offers the courses of top Universities in the world in an open learning mode as well as offering its own courses.

Some foreign institutions have their own campuses, but the best known among them is ESSEC, the French Business School, which is one of the top Business Schools in Europe. It will soon move into its new 100 acre campus being built at a cost of $40 million to cater for its 3,500 students. The Singapore government provides grants and loans to top institutions it invites to set up campuses in the country. Some Universities are also well established in China, with the State University of New York moving its Singapore campus there. Indonesia is also fast becoming a destination for some of them.

These examples show clearly what is a hub and what campuses are meant to be. What are we doing? The ongoing saga involving recognition of campuses of little known overseas higher education institutions is doing a lot of damage to our professed aim of turning Mauritius into a knowledge hub. Or is it just a political slogan when inaugurating with fanfare ‘‘campuses’’ in every nook and corner of the island when nobody knows what facilities these campuses will offer and what Universities will agree to come to Mauritius?

The Tertiary Education Commission has miserably failed in its role of being a ‘‘chien de garde’’ in this field. Its Act is very clear on its responsibilities, which include a detailed regulatory framework, approval of courses and equivalence of qualifications. Section 12(B) is quite specific on the use of the name of an overseas institution: “No centre or branch campus of an overseas institution shall include the name of that institution as part of its name unless the centre or branch campus is established and operated by that overseas institution.” Its Mission, as anybody can see on its website, is to “Position Mauritius as a world class hub and the Gateway for Post Secondary Education”. Can our incompetence and lack of vision bring this about?