China’s International Branch Campuses have become a high-stakes "Plan B" for the urban elite. Far from a compromise, these campuses offer a strategic conversion of wealth into global prestige, creating a specialized fast-track to Western Master’s programs. Is this new educational "third way" actually a mechanism for reinforcing deep-seated class divides?
The pandemic forced universities to evolve beyond physical mobility. While digital shifts exposed inequalities, "Go Local" and "Study Away" models used global hubs to bypass travel restrictions. This "distributed campus" strategy reveals that deep internationalisation and robust global networks are now functional necessities for institutional resilience and recovery.
