The University of Hertfordshire, in partnership with Inti Management College of Malaysia, has become the first British university to be recognised by the Chinese authorities to award British undergraduate degrees in China.
Beijing Inti Management College began offering courses in business management to Chinese students in 1994. Courses are taught in English with the bulk of the final, franchised, year being taught by Hertfordshire lecturers.
Yvonne Turner, head of the business department and senior lecturer at Hertfordshire, says it has been a long struggle to achieve recognition to award a foreign degree and to be allowed to advertise their services. BIMC still has to apply for accreditation of its degree programme by the highest state body, the Academic Degrees Committee, a process which could take years.
Demand for the course has grown from about 100 students in the first year to more than 350 this year.
Ms Turner says the college will soon outgrow its premises but has plans for a campus to cater for 2,000 students.