Two UK universities have struck deals to offer joint programmes with Chinese institutions as part of a visit to the country by the universities and science minister.

David Willetts was in China with health secretary Jeremy Hunt this week for a two-day visit to promote UK higher education and science.

Among the agreements confirmed during the visit was that the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Central Lancashire is to set up a joint media centre with Hebei 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ.

Courses in media, communications and creative industries will be offered from September this year.

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Bangor 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ is also to create Bangor College in the city of Changsha in partnership with the Central South 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Forestry and Technology.

The college will start offering programmes this September in undergraduate accounting, banking, finance and electronic engineering.

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The two governments also signed a broad ranging three-year agreement on educational collaboration, including in higher education, research and language learning and teaching.

A new piece of research, conducted by the British Council and Confucius Institutes, will look at the extent of Chinese language learning in the UK.

¡°The findings of the research will inform the future policy and the investment strategy needed to increase in the number of Chinese language [learners] in the UK,¡± according to a statement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com