Liverpool University is on the lookout for 20 academics ready to work at its jointly run institution in China.

Ambitious staff at grades from lecturer to professor are being sought to fill posts at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University near Shanghai, which celebrates its first anniversary in May.

Vacancies, advertised in today's Times Higher , are to be filled across disciplines that range from mathematics, physics, computer science and electronics to business, finance and management.

Drummond Bone, the vice-chancellor, said Liverpool would be looking for people who were considering settling in China, as well as others who were interested in shorter-term contracts, for three years for example.

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He said the application and selection process was deliberately flexible to allow a maximum number of candidates to come forward to discuss the opportunities.

"We are trying to reach as many possible applicants as possible, so that if people are in some way interested, we can talk through what kind of posts we have and what kind of expertise they have, as well as their family and career circumstances. We need to do that because this is such an unusual opportunity," he said.

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Those who take up the posts will have the chance to mix with Chinese academics from Xi'an Jiaotong University, which, together with Liverpool, won a licence from the Chinese authorities to establish a joint institution last year.

Professor Bone said he expected more job opportunities to arise at this and other foreign campuses. "There is nothing new in academics going to work abroad. What is new is that they are working on foreign campuses managed by UK institutions," he said.

The Chinese authorities have said that Xi'an Jiaotong is the last institution to which they will grant a licence to establish a joint campus with a foreign institution in the country.

The purpose-built campus in Suzhou, 90km west of Shanghai, opened last September. It will recruit from across China and other parts of Asia and plans to accommodate up to 10,000 students by 2012 and to have a student-to-staff ratio no greater than 20 to one.

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Students will have the option to complete their studies in Liverpool, graduating with a Liverpool University degree.