Other international institutions could set up campuses if Nottingham's cut-price Ningbo proves to be successful
Leaders of China's first foreign-run university are predicting a spate of similar initiatives across the mainland as the $550 million campus opens today.
The University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus is being formally launched this morning in a three-hour ceremony attended by party and state dignitaries and a group of Hong Kong businessmen.
It is offering British degree courses taught entirely in China mainly by British academics at half the cost of studying in Britain - a formula designed to appeal to the mainland's growing middle class.
The university is admitting 550 undergraduates and 110 postgraduates this month to the 28 hectare campus provided by joint-venture partner Wanli Education Group, after 250 students completed a trial year at Zhejiang Wan Li University.
It plans to expand the intake to 4,000 by 2010 and to have international students as well as applicants from Hong Kong and Macau make up 25 per cent of the total by 2008. Undergraduate fees will be 50,000 yuan per year for mainland students and 80,000 yuan for international students.
Professor Ian Gow, provost of the Ningbo campus, said: 'It enables us to offer a degree which is effectively half the price of studying at a good British university, including Nottingham. You can send your child to Nottingham for an excellent degree or you can have the same degree with the same quality here and you can buy a car as well.'