NYU Offers Students Stranded Overseas Classes at Shanghai WeWork
NYU Offers Students Stranded Overseas Classes at Shanghai WeWork
(Bloomberg) -- More than 3,000 Chinese students who can’t get to New York University campuses in the U.S. or Abu Dhabi can take fall semester classes in a WeWork in Shanghai, the U.S. university said.
Holding classes in a co-working space is a novel approach, but NYU isn’t alone in trying to retain its international students, who typically pay full tuition. The pandemic, travel restrictions and inconsistent visa guidelines have prompted many foreign students to reassess their plans. Earlier this month, the U.S. government reversed a policy on student visas after a high-profile confrontation with dozens of colleges, ending a standoff that could have sent a handful of international students back to their home countries.
NYU opened a campus in Shanghai in 2013, part of its global expansion, but with a typical student enrollment around 1,700, it doesn’t have the space to accommodate the overflow, according to a July 17 post on its website. The university will renovate seven floors in a nearby WeWork to create classrooms, lecture halls and other academic facilities.
The private liberal arts university, where four years of undergraduate tuition alone can cost upwards of $220,000, is also extending similar privileges at its other campuses. “Students from NYU’s three portal campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai, may apply to study at an NYU location that is open and closer to their homes,” the university said.
The We Company, which is backed by Softbank Group, has experimented with real estate beyond workspaces. It runs WeLive, offering short-term and long-term housing in New York and Washington D.C. It also ran a school, called WeGrow, that closed in 2019.
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