Shropshire's new university looking to net foreign students
The leaders of Shropshire's new university say they are confident of recruiting "significant" numbers of international students.
A team from China has already visited University Centre Shrewsbury to discuss possible opportunities, and deputy provost Paul Kirkbright said the university would be looking to recruit students from a number of countries in 2016 and 2017.
"We will look to ramp up on the activities to bring in international students, but we have had applications from several countries already and that is without doing anything yet," he said.
"We think it has been a very encouraging start to receive applications for this first year and gives us hope that, when we concentrate our activities, Shrewsbury will be a very attractive proposition for students.
"The University of Chester and University Centre Shrewsbury are partnered with a number of high-profile Chinese institutions.
"I think the quality of life, the history, the heritage, the quintessential English town that Shrewsbury is will be very attractive to Chinese students." The Chinese team which visited Shrewsbury included Jin Xu, the University of Chester's representative in China, and Chinese entrepreneur and doctoral researcher Sen Yang.
The guests were given a tour of the town, and spent time with several people connected with the project. Mr Xu is based at Beijing where the University of Chester has an office. He works throughout China to build links with major universities, colleges and schools.
Mr Kirkbright said he was delighted to welcomed the Chinese visitors to Shrewsbury.
He said: "We have already received applications from a range of countries and are further building our international standing.
"It was an honour to welcome Jin Xu and Sen Yang to Shrewsbury, alongside colleagues from the university centre and sixth form college. I look forward to continuing to work together to strengthen links between the university centre and China."
Mr Xu said: "Shrewsbury is a well-known historic town with great culture.
"With a variety of undergraduate courses being offered and new courses being developed, Shrewsbury provides the ideal setting to study a high-quality and innovative degree course.
"I believe that more and more Chinese and other international students will join University Centre Shrewsbury for their degree studies in the next few years."
