The University of Abertay Dundee is claiming more than Pounds 130,000 from a Hong Kong company which it says misled it over a distance-learning contract.

In a Hong Kong Supreme Court writ, the university alleges that Stephen Lam Chun-wah and Mathew Cheung Yeung-fui, directors of Grand Consultants Ltd, made false claims which led it to sign a contract in 1993 for part-time MBA degrees.

The Hong Kong company was not responsible for the academic side of the course, but for handling fees and organising accommodation.

The university writ claims that the two directors said their company ran the Tak Ming College, which they claimed was set up in 1961, but that the company name had in fact been bought only two months earlier.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

The two directors either made fraudulent claims or misrepresented the facts, says the writ. The university is now seeking tuition fees which it alleges are due to it.

Meanwhile, the university has announced that it has linked up with Hong Kong's Caritas Francis Hsu College to offer a two-year part-time MBA course, which will have an initial intake of up to 40 in September. University staff will fly out to Hong Kong every two months for an intensive week course of lectures and tutorials. The university will oversee admissions and validate the course.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Caritas, a Roman Catholic college which was approved by the Hong Kong government in 1990 to offer a variety of business studies courses, will house the course and provide academic counselling and tutorial support.

Graeme Martin, director of the university's Dundee Business School, said Hong Kong students no longer needed to travel overseas to get high-quality British management education.

"A great deal of what we teach is set in the context of global competition, and the more our staff are engaged in working overseas, the better able they are to teach international business from first-hand experience," he said.