Corporation Member Tino Cuéllar Floats Harvard ‘Outposts Abroad’ by 2030

Harvard Corporation member Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar ’93 suggested last week that the University could establish satellite campuses overseas, saying that Harvard should look closely at “outposts abroad” in the near future.

Asked in a podcast interview with Harvard College Dean David J. Deming to predict how the University would change by 2030, Cuéllar said he expected Harvard to confront what it means to be a “global institution.”

“I think in 2030, probably Harvard will be thinking hard about how to balance those two realities, being an American institution first, but maybe leaning into further exploring having some outposts abroad that let it continue its mission and deepen its relationships with key nodes in the world’s production of knowledge,” Cuéllar said.

Cuéllar’s remarks are the latest indication of a growing awareness among Harvard’s top brass that the University must adapt to stiff competition from universities abroad.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 has lamented in recent interviews that American universities are lagging behind their foreign peers in research output and losing out on talented scholars, particularly postgraduate students, from abroad. Garber has attributed this shift to reduced federal investment in higher education research.

Though Cuéllar’s reference to “further exploring” outposts appeared to raise the possibility of new forms of engagement abroad, Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote that Cuéllar was referring to the University’s existing academic and research partnerships in foreign countries.

Deming did not ask Cuéllar during the interview to clarify what the University was “further exploring.”

Cuéllar suggested last Wednesday that looking overseas was a natural extension of the University’s expansion into Allston and Longwood, as well as its partnerships with MIT and local hospitals.

“I think Harvard will be further along taking inspiration from all of that and asking itself, ‘How can it be more able to meet needs and concerns of people well beyond our campus without ever neglecting the people who are at the core of our mission, our students, our faculty, our staff?’” he said.

If Harvard follows through on Cuéllar’s proposal, it would be an institutional about-face for the University, which has consistently declined to follow the lead of other top universities in establishing formal campuses abroad.

In 2010, Yale University partnered with the National University of Singapore to establish an outpost. Around the same time, Duke University and New York University established campuses in China and Abu Dhabi, respectively. The Yale satellite — approved by its Corporation but not its faculty – was plagued by controversy and shuttered last year.

But Harvard administrators, including then-Harvard President Drew G. Faust, were clear at the time that they wanted to keep their primary focus in Cambridge. The University’s vice provost for international affairs told The Crimson in 2012 that he was “not in the McDonald’s franchising business.”

Instead, the University prioritized local offices and research outposts, with 16 offices and dozens of partnered programs by 2015. The University currently advertises a dozen “ongoing operations” across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Cuéllar did not propose any specific locations for potential outposts during the interview, but framed the idea as a way to expand Harvard’s impact beyond U.S. borders.

“What is Harvard able to do for a very big world that can benefit from what we dream up here?” he said.

But any effort by the University to expand its foreign footprint would have to contend with already-intense scrutiny of Harvard’s overseas ties.

The Department of Justice announced last week that it was investigating Harvard for accepting China-lined financial aid gifts with preferences for students from foreign countries, though an analysis by The Crimson found only $4 million in gifts from China and Hong Kong explicitly preferred students from those places.

The DOJ investigation builds on more than a year of government probes into Harvard’s foreign entanglements. Last spring, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Department of Education each began probing Harvard’s foreign donations.

The Select Committee also wrote to Garber in May 2025 alleging that the University was “hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary organization.”

Cuéllar said during the interview that even as Harvard works to shore up its public standing at home, it must continue evolving and innovating.

“That is always going to take a little bit of hunger, for lack of a better word, a sense that this is an unfinished story,” Cuéllar said. “We’ve got a lot to do and that if we rest on our laurels too much, then Harvard is not going to be what it needs to be in 10 years.”

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.