Delighted University of Huddersfield chiefs are planning more expansion in the Far East.

The University now has full-time, fully-staffed offices in three major Chinese cities, following the opening of the latest one in Shanghai.

And the university, steeped in an area with a long tradition of high quality textile design and manufacture, has also forged a special relationship with a Chinese institution from a region with a centuries-old heritage of silk production.

The Suzhou Institute of Trade and Commerce (SITC) is located in a city – close to Shanghai – that is more than 2,500 years-old and noted for its ancient canal network. Its many areas of teaching and research include silk production, ensuring that the region remains a centre of excellence for this fabric.

Huddersfield currently has 1,000 Chinese stduents, about a third of its international intake, and hopes to boost this still further.

The Shanghai office opening was celebrated at a special event attended by more than 100 former students plus some UK visitors.

An alumni reunion was held at the No 1 Club, in the heart of the historic dockland area of Shanghai, and a large proportion of the ex-students had studied for degrees in logistics and hospitality management that are delivered by visiting University of Huddersfield staff at the Sino-British College. The event was also attended by graduates from other key partners in the region such as Nanjing University of Finance and Economics and the Shanghai Institute of Technology.

The University's Director of International Development, Andrew Mandebura, signs the Memorandum of Understanding with the Suzhou Institute of Trade and Commerce's Vice-President Xie Dong.

A special guest was Prof Colin Bamford, recently retired as Associate Dean of the University’s Business School and a pioneer in the development of degree courses in transport and the supply chain. He has recently been granted the title Emeritus Professor by the University of Huddersfield.

The university already has offices in Guangzhou, the largest city in southern China, and the capital Beijing, with a total of eight staff.

The Suzhou deal will see the two institutions collaborate on areas include computing and engineering plus textile design, which is a long-standing speciality at the UK university.

A team of 19 members of the staff of SITC paid a visit to Huddersfield in order to sign the memorandum. The party was headed by Xie Dong, who is a Vice-President of the Institute.