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 University of Central Lancashire is to set up a joint media centre with Hebei University.

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

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Bangor University is also to create Bangor College in the city of Changsha in partnership with the Central South University 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