So, firstly, because that assumes that a successful university has some sort of secret sauce that makes it better at education than others, which it can apply t

So, firstly, because that assumes that a successful university has some sort of secret sauce that makes it better at education than others, which it can apply to more students. They don't. Everyone knows how to run a university. Success is basically a coordination game, where you win by owning the point where the top 0.01% of students and top 0.01% of academics want to go. By definition, that doesn't scale. Secondly, they have. It's now quite common for UK universities to have spin-off campuses a long way from their original sites: https://www.lborolondon.ac.uk/ https://www.lborolondon.ac.uk/ https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/currentstudents/study-abroad/international-campuses/china-malaysia-campuses.aspx https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/currentstudents/study-abroad/in...