Asian recruits add cultural flavour to northern England

ENTICING FOREIGN students to university is such a lucrative business, Britain's University of Sunderland established a representative office in Hong Kong four years ago.

The office, in Wan Chai, is the nerve-centre of the university's recruitment drive throughout Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland.

The move has been successful. Of the 1,200 foreign students studying at the university, about 600 are from the mainland, 100 are from Hong Kong and 60 are from Taiwan.

Chinese students now make up such a large portion of the student body, the university even considered placing a cap on the number it would accept.

'We hope to have students from all over the world, not just one place. We want a good mix of cultures,' the office's director of operations, Francis Chiang, said.

However, the directive was never passed and the number of Chinese students is rising.

'In China, we don't need to do a lot of active recruitment - they come to us,' Mr Chiang said. India is the school's second-largest source of foreign students.

In partnership with the Caritas Adult & Higher Education Service, the school has been running a scheme to allow students in the local charity's continuing education programmes to transfer into the second or third year of its bachelor course. Students spend two to three years studying at Caritas' learning centres before the university considers them.

'Academically, Hong Kong students are good in the scientific field. In mathematics and computing they have few problems catching up. In business and arts, however, language ability is a factor and that makes it more difficult.'