HUDDERSFIELD University is bucking a national fall in applications from international students.

Bosses say they're seeing record numbers of people from overseas wanting to study in the town.

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show universities across the country are experiencing a drop of more than 5% in applications from international students - those from countries outside the European Union.

But Huddersfield's applications have risen by over 20%.

The university's international director, Graham Wood, says the future looks bright.

He said: "Over the last three years the university's international recruitment has been increasing at a fairly rapid rate. We anticipate this is probably going to continue in the coming years.

"Since 2001, the university has doubled its number of international students to nearly 700. We now receive more than treble the number of applications, which is more than 4,500."

Two of the key recruitment areas for the university are East Asia and South- East Asia with the main countries being China - including Hong Kong - Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea and Japan.

Another very buoyant area is South Asia, where the university has been recruiting well from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The university also has a firm foothold in the Middle East with expanding numbers of students from Jordan, the Gulf States and Libya.

"Many universities have become over-dependent on the big markets, but that exposes you to competition," said Mr Wood. "We feel we have a fairly broad spread and it's that spread that has cushioned any downturn at Huddersfield.

"We have also had positive results with new markets. For example, we saw an opportunity in Pakistan, but a lot of the other universities won't go there for security reasons.

"A region that we are just starting to look at is what we call the sub-Saharan region, which includes countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya."