【BBC】Peking University to open new UK campus
2017-03-10 09:00:58
A leading Chinese university is to open a campus in UK.
Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), set up by the university in 2002, has bought the former Open University site in Boar's Hill.
It said the new facility, at Foxcombe Hall just outside Oxford, would open in summer 2018 and teach students from China, the UK and the European Union.
They will be given the opportunity to study for a year at the Oxford campus and another year in China.
The business school is based in Shenzhen in the province of Guangdong.
A statement from PHBS said China was "opening its higher education market to the world" in a bid to improve the country's "inferior position globally over the past century".
It added that after the Brexit vote "the EU and the Great Britain have become more competitive in their desire to enhance their relationship with China".
Peking University president Prof Lin Jianhua said: "It is our hope that the new initiative in Oxford will further strengthen the school's international reputation as well as its teaching and research capabilities."
The campus will host its first group of visiting students from China next spring is expected to be fully functioning by the summer of 2018.
In September, Times Higher Education ranked Peking University 29th in the world.
The Open University closed seven regional centres last year in what it said was an attempt to streamline student support.
Jon Silversides, a partner at estate agent Carter Jonas, said the Open University is due to vacate the premises in May and added: "We wish the business school every success in their investment in the UK."
