DELEGATES from top Chinese universities have been visiting Huddersfield.
Staff from the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics visited Huddersfield University, along with people from universities in the Tianjin area of China.
Nanjing University's president Professor Xu Congcai and six of its deans examined Huddersfield University's departments of transport, business and management, food science, law and engineering.
Nanjing, in the greater Shanghai region, is famous as a university city and has status equal to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK.
Professor Congcai and Huddersfield University vice-chancellor John Tarrant signed a `memorandum of understanding' on their shared interest in forming links.
Five vice-presidents, six deans and seven directors from universities in Tianjin inspected Huddersfield University's school of education and professional development.
The delegation had originally come to visit the University of Leeds but had wanted to see other universities in the region.
They will make a return visit on August 10, when they will tour the Huddersfield University's school of computing and engineering.
The visits were part of Huddersfield University's efforts to build links with China and South Asia.
These are the university's key recruitment areas for overseas students, many of who come from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Since 2001, Huddersfield University has doubled its number of overseas students to 700.
