'We decided to do this because we wanted Hong Kong universities to play a role in the development of university education on the mainland,' said BaptistU president Ng Ching-fai, who is also president of UIC. 'We hope that this model can be adapted for other universities in the rest of Guangdong province.'

The English-medium college, which opened in 2005, offers four-year degrees adapted from BaptistU courses, beginning with a one-year general education programme. Until now it has accepted almost exclusively mainland students but there are plans for it to expand and attract overseas students keen to complete a degree course under the wing of one of the world's most rapidly developing nations.

The official inauguration of the newly completed campus this week drew several heavyweights from the political arena. The impressive roll-call included figures such as a vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Xu Jialu; Si Zhiguang, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress; and Wang Yuxue, deputy director of Guangdong's Department of Education. Professor Xu is also chairman of UIC's governing board.

Former Hong Kong education chief Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun put in a surprise appearance. 'When I was permanent secretary [for education and manpower], we were very supportive of this project,' Mrs Law said. 'I had to come to see how the buildings had turned out.'

At the time of the celebrations, the dust had barely settled on the construction work; many corridors still smelled of fresh paint, deep mechanical-digger gouges marked the edges of the main ornamental pond and much of the grass was still a patchwork of recently laid turf. The halls and classrooms were pristine, yet to acquire the notice boards and other assorted clutter that is part and parcel of campus life. In fact, there was little to show that this is now home to more than 2,200 students.

'They only finished some of the buildings this morning,' executive vice-president Edmund Kwok Siu-tong said. The energetic history professor is the college's effective figurehead on a day-to-day basis, answering directly to Professor Ng.

Professor Kwok enthused about the progress the college had made in 21/2 years but said he had no illusion about the challenges that lay ahead.

'It takes 10 years to grow a tree but 100 years to educate a person,' he said at Wednesday's opening ceremony, quoting a Chinese proverb. 'The building up of a university is an enterprise of 100 years. UIC is a small, freshly planted seedling. Every step that it takes is a challenge, an adventure. In that adventure, there may be wrong turns and mistakes.'

Professor Kwok's speech, which he delivered in both English and Putonghua, was the only part of the ceremony conducted in the university's medium of instruction, apart from the bilingual emcee introductions, the English half of which was performed by a western member of staff.

Several questions still hang over the future of UIC, not least of which is maintaining quality. How can such a small university hope to attract the calibre of international academics required to deliver high-standard degree courses in English?

Professor Kwok said staff recruitment was exceeding expectations and there had been greater interest from overseas than predicted.

'About 20 per cent of our teaching staff are from Hong Kong and Macau,' he said. 'Another 40 per cent or so are from the mainland but more than 40 per cent are expatriates.' He said the draw was the opportunity to experience the mainland's economic transformation from the inside, and the chance to be part of an academic experiment.

The prospectus distributed at this week's ceremony contained the names of only 23 teaching staff, just more than one for every 100 students. It would appear the college faces an uphill struggle to meet its staffing needs if it is to reach its full capacity of 4,000 students.

Edgar Yuen Kee-wan came on board last September as an associate professor teaching on the college's international journalism course. A former Hong Kong journalist with more than 20 years' experience, he completed his PhD thesis at Peking University last year - though he has not yet had it contested - but had never taught a class before coming to Zhuhai. He said he had been attracted by a change in his pace of life.

'I want to relax. The environment here is pretty good,' he said. 'Teaching is a much easier life than journalism.'

Retired US diplomat Morton Holbrook, who also joined at the beginning of this academic year, was also headhunted.

The veteran mandarin is a specialist in Chinese foreign policy, having helped negotiate the United States' first treaty with the People's Republic of China. As a humanities professor, he now teaches courses in Chinese law and international relations with China.

'I wanted to see that first generation of children under the one-child policy, the first generation to grow up in the greatest economic turnaround in history, and find out what are they like.' However, he too has no previous teaching experience.

'I believe there is a goal that we should do research, somewhere way out there, but I haven't had time to do any as yet,' Professor Holbrook said.

Another question is the feasibility of attracting foreign students. 'It is about global brand-building,' Professor Ng said. 'We are admitting higher-quality students every year.

'Many [overseas Chinese] parents would like to send their children to study in China but they worry that their options might be limited on graduation if they have learnt only in Chinese. As we are teaching in English, they will be able to maintain a global outlook but achieve a good level of Chinese at the same time.'

For mainland students at least, the joint-venture seems to have hit on a bankable package.

Relying on the two partner universities' reputations, the draw of an education in English and coupled with some specialist courses such as television and cinema, the college has developed strong niche-market appeal.

So much so that it is able to charge 40,000 yuan in annual fees, well above the going rate for mainland universities - many charging only 5,000 yuan.

March Yau Yue, 19, a second-year student on the cinema and television programme, said: 'There are not many universities that offer this course. The fact that it is in English appealed to me a lot but I also know that BaptistU has a good reputation for film studies.

'The fees are a lot more expensive than other universities but I think it is all right. We have much better facilities than the universities next door.'

But there was a downside - location. 'Depending on the traffic, it can be quicker to get home to visit my parents than it takes to get into central Zhuhai,' she said.

Terence Lu Chuan, 21, another second-year student, agreed: 'To go out, we need to go into the centre of town but that takes over an hour on the bus. We only do that on the weekend as it's quite a lot of hassle.'