Two weeks ago the Mercury revealed UOW had taken the first steps towards a campus in the Gulf kingdom, signing an MOU which allowed it to acquire an investment licence.

This sparked immediate criticism of the move given the authoritarian state's record of human rights abuses, including widespread discrimination against women.

Women are able to study at university in Saudi Arabia, but most universities are gender-segregated - their campuses are men- or women-only.

But a UOW spokesman said a Saudi campus would be governed by the same admission principles as at home - meaning it would be a co-educational campus.

"The University of Wollongong applies the same admission and operating principles for all of its campuses and any future campuses we open would operate under those same guidelines," the spokesman said.

UOW has said the development of any Saudi campus is a long way off, and would be subject to a period of assessment beforehand.

Earlier in March UOW had said the investment licence "allows UOW Global Enterprises (UOWGE) to undertake detailed market and legal analysis to better understand the opportunity before taking any further steps towards a potential higher education institution".

"Further detailed work, as well as internal and external approvals, are required before any decision on opening a campus in Saudi Arabia is made," it said.

A media release was drafted by UOWGE but not sent out in Australia.

The Saudi move was slammed by the UOW branch of the NTEU, the main academics union, as "hypocritical" and "mercenary" as the UOW professed to hold values of openness and diversity but was looking to invest in a country where full human rights didn't extend to all.

Saudi Arabia is courting international universities partly to meet a major increase in demand for higher education places.

Women in Saudi Arabia are subject to a male guardianship system, and have only been allowed to travel without the guardian's permission since 2019, part of a limited reform drive over the past decade which included women being given the right to vote in 2015, and allowed to drive in 2018.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, opened in 2009, was Saudi Arabia's first to allow men and women to study together on campus.

In 2021 the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals started admitting women as well as men, and in 2022 the tiny women-only Effat University opened its doors to men - but women and men would not share classes.