Not many people would have predicted that the University of New Haven would be the first to establish a Western branch campus in Saudi Arabia. Yet the Connecticut-based institution announced in May that it has become the first to be granted permission to open a campus in Riyadh’s Misk City — a purpose-built non-profit city designed for Saudi’s youth population.

Despite concerns over human rights abuses and its reputation for bureaucracy, Saudi Arabia, with its grand Vision 2030 that looks to transform its economy away from oil to a knowledge economy, has long sparked the interest of global universities looking to expand. With a large youth population and growing economy, many — including the University of Wollongong in Australia and Heriot-Watt University in Scotland — have also explored plans to establish campuses in the country.

New Haven’s president, Jens Frederiksen, told Times Higher Education that there was “some shock” that it was his university that managed to be the first to get a campus up and running. He says he has been “blown away” by the transformation happening in Saudi, having visited the country nine times for negotiations. Its College of Business and Digital Innovation, which will form the “first phase” of New Haven’s plans in the region, is due to open in September and is currently undergoing its first recruitment round.

Saudi’s appeal for higher education institutions lies in its large youth population, says Frederiksen, and its grand economic transformation plans, as laid out in Vision 2030, which also include targets to increase women’s participation in the labour market. “You’re experiencing a complete explosion there in terms of the appetite for talent, and the ambition to live up to these audacious goals,” he says, adding that to “supercharge an entire economy” there needs to be a “supercharging of skills-based learning”.

Frederiksen expects recruitment for the academic year beginning September to remain modest, as the institution could not announce the campus location until May, which took a “Herculean lift” to get over the line. Despite this, there has been “strong interest” so far, and he would like to see the Misk campus grow to 2,000 undergraduates in coming years. The university will also look at opening more colleges in Saudi over the next 10 years, based on the needs of skills and the economy.

“I think (Saudi) is the biggest story in global higher education that’s coming but it hasn’t received the attention it deserves,” says Frederiksen.