MBA, University of Hull · MSc European Politics, Birkbeck, University of London
Doha, Qatar · Active across 5 jurisdictions · 2025
Collaborative Partnerships International is a Doha-based advisory firm that structures, finances and launches transnational schools and universities — bridging investors, operators and academic institutions across the GCC, the United Kingdom and South Asia.
Mandates
Sector experience
About the firm
We facilitate and manage school and university projects — structuring strategic partnerships, conducting feasibility studies and providing end-to-end execution. for institutions launching and scaling across emerging markets.
Headquartered
Advisory mandate & sponsor-side execution
Sectors
Mission
Forming strategic alliances between academic institutions and stakeholders that foster sustainable growth and knowledge exchange across markets.
Vision
Empowering global learners and communities through institutions designed for the markets they serve — and the standards their parent universities demand.
Why Qatar
Qatar’s two-decade investment in human capital — anchored by Qatar Foundation, Education City and a maturing regulatory regime — has created a market where transnational partnerships now operate at scale, with clarity, and with capital depth rarely matched in the region.
01 / Cluster
Six branch campuses of leading international universities operate within a single 12-km² campus, supported by a sovereign foundation with three decades of operational maturity.
02 / Regulation
Higher-education licensing flows through the Ministry of Education and Higher Education; the Qatar Financial Centre provides a parallel English-law vehicle for sponsor-side structuring.
03 / Capital
One of the region’s deepest pools of long-tenor patient capital, with mature appetite for the unit economics and ramp profile that an education asset requires.
04 / Geography
Doha’s connectivity — combined with English-medium instruction and a multinational expatriate base — makes it a natural gateway market for regional educational expansion.
Service lines
Seven active mandates across five regulatory regimes. Each project structured around a clear governance model, defensible academic integrity and a financial case that holds through cycle.
Six branch campuses of leading international universities operate within a single 12-km² campus, supported by a sovereign foundation with three decades of operational maturity.
01
Comprehensive market, regulatory and operational analysis for establishing institutions — including MoEHE, KHDA, ADEK and parallel pathways through the QFC and Qatar Foundation.
02
Facilitating MoUs and partnerships that deliver world-class academic programmes — aligning curriculum, quality assurance, degree-awarding integrity and academic governance.
03
Investor-grade financial models tailored to transnational education — covering capex, royalty structures, working capital, IRR, sensitivity analysis and exit scenarios.
04
IV.
Selected mandates
Operational
01
1,500
Operational
02
1,500
Operational
03
1,500
Operational
04
1,500
Operational
05
1,500
Operational
V.
Featured mandate
Live opportunity · 2025
№ Dubai Knowledge Park · KHDA
CPI is establishing the first New Zealand university branch campus in the Middle East — a triple-crown business school (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA) with a QS World University ranking inside the top 250 and #1 in New Zealand for Research Citations per Staff.
Structured under a KHDA-licensed branch campus model with an Academic Infrastructure Provider operating under a Service Agreement, the project preserves the parent university’s academic integrity while delivering a commercially viable vehicle for the Gulf market.
The campus opens to its first cohort in September 2025, with a five-year ramp to over 1,600 enrolled students across 15 programmes.
Y5 Capacity
EBITDA Positive
Y5 Revenue
IPO
QS World University
Ranking
Triple Crown
AACSB · EQUIS · AMBA
In New Zealand
Research Citations / Staff
Bachelor & Master
Programmes
Engagement model
Our typical engagement spans four phases — from initial feasibility through commercial close, regulatory licensure and operational launch. We work alongside sponsor-side teams as integrated partners rather than detached advisors.
Phase 01
i.
Market sizing, regulatory mapping, partner shortlisting and preliminary financial modelling to test whether the project has both academic integrity and a commercial case.
Phase 02
ii.
MoU with the partner institution, definitive agreements, governance framework, regulatory pre-applications and full sponsor-grade financial model with sensitivity analysis.
Phase 03
iii.
Capital raise from family offices, sovereigns or strategic investors; in parallel, securing the institutional licence and quality assurance approvals from the regulator and the parent university.
Phase 04
iv.
Campus build-out, faculty recruitment, programme accreditation, student admissions, marketing rollout and first-cohort welcome. We remain engaged through Year 1 to stabilise the operating rhythm.
Perspectives
Regulation
Six branch campuses of leading international universities operate within a single 12-km² campus, supported by a sovereign foundation with three decades of operational maturity.
Operations
Drawing on seven mandates across five jurisdictions, a stage-gated framework for taking a higher-education project from preliminary diligence through operational launch — and the failure modes at each gate.
Economics
A working paper on the unit economics of premium and mid-market K-12 schools across the GCC, including ramp-to-capacity sensitivities, cost-of-capital benchmarks and the emerging role of credit funds.
VIII.
Leadership
Founding partner
Co-Founder · Higher Education
A senior higher education practitioner with over twenty-six years in the sector. Brian has led the development of national and international partnership agreements for the UK university sector and specialises in higher education public-private partnerships.frt
Founding partner
Co-Founder · Higher Education
A senior higher education practitioner with over twenty-six years in the sector. Brian has led the development of national and international partnership agreements for the UK university sector and specialises in higher education public-private partnerships.frt
IX.
Get in touch
Collaborative Partnerships International
Doha · State of Qatar
By appointment only