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Nottingham University's Ningbo campus now has 2,850 students studying for degrees equivalent to those in the UK. Nottingham says its aim is to build research and industry links with China and to improve student mobility between the countries.

Numbers of Chinese students at Nottingham in the UK rose in the past academic year to 1,166 from 1,037 in the previous year. Nottingham owns a 37.5 per cent share in the Ningbo campus, a joint venture with the state-owned Wanli Education Group. Wanli provided the infrastructure, worth £14 million.

Nottingham has spent a further £5.3 million in its Malaysia campus, in which it owns 29.1 per cent of the shares.

A spokesman for Nottingham said that the university's current deficit of Pounds 8 million on a £345.9 million income was not tied directly to the China and Malaysia developments, as it had spent more than £200 million over the past decade on infrastructure in Nottingham as well as abroad.

"We confidently expect handsome surpluses from China and Malaysia within five years at most. We estimate that the campuses in Malaysia and China already have a combined value of £150 million. That's a pretty phenomenal return on a £40 million investment - of which we contributed less than 25 per cent," he said.