If you were looking for lucrative opportunities overseas to boost your college’s income, Saudi Arabia would unlikely be top of your list.

Following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a month ago, the Middle East regime has come under intense global scrutiny.

There’s plenty of material to be uncovered: frequent executions, often for non-violent crimes; the banning of public gatherings; widespread discrimination against the Shia Muslim minority. You know, the kind of stuff that tends to happen when your political system is described by Wikipedia as a “unitary Islamic totalitarian absolute monarchy”.

It may have been less high profile, but Saudi Arabia’s foray into technical “Colleges of Excellence” also attracted plenty of global interest. The scheme was set up in 2013 with the aim of improving the country’s technical and vocational education. Half of the country’s population is under the age of 25, and its rulers are keen to develop vocational training to diversify its economy.

International FE providers were invited to take on purpose-built colleges to train Saudi youngsters. More than half of the current partners are English FE providers. The scheme hasn’t been without its controversies, with those involved warning of punitive contracts and low levels of recruitment.

This hadn’t put off the Saudi government. In January, its Technical and Vocational Training Corporation held an event in London to promote the latest wave of the programme, with seven new contracts up for grabs, as well as the possible retendering of the 31 current college contracts.

Have UK colleges been queuing to sign up? Well, not exactly.

A Saudi trip for interested parties was planned to take place this spring. FErret understands that, in the end, it was scrapped by the Department for International Trade following a lack of interest. After the diplomatic games of recent weeks, it’s hard to see an upsurge in demand coming any time soon.