I would have praised him if he have made universities that are on par with Stanford, MIT (which would have cost 1/10th of cost of current development). They have seen shinny Vagus but failed to see why they shine.
That said, Abu Dhabi is actually trying to do just that. They're buying off entire departments of western universities, offering generous research grants if the department is relocated to Abu Dhabi. The idea is to bootstrap a tradition of higher education.