Nottingham rebuked for ‘misleading’ students over China campus

Official censure comes amid claims that pioneering institution is only ‘a Chinese college that bears Nottingham’s name’

September 29, 2021
A private contractor helps remove a traffic signpost as a metaphor for Nottingham rapped for ‘misleading’ students over China campus
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The University of Nottingham has been criticised by England’s higher education ombudsman over “misleading” publicity related to its China campus amid staff claims that its Ningbo outpost is really “a Chinese college that bears Nottingham’s name”.

The rebuke from the Office of the Independent Adjudicator in Higher Education (OIA) came as it concluded that an engineering PhD student based at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) had been unfairly treated after he complained he had been assaulted by a professor in a sports centre changing room.

Despite the existence of CCTV footage that the student felt would support his allegation, the student was banned from the changing room for four months and, he said, subjected to a campaign of harassment that saw him wrongly accused of sexual harassment.

In its judgement, seen by Times Higher Education, the OIA recommends that Nottingham pay the student an additional £2,000 – on top of nearly £4,000 in compensation already offered to him – for the failings in its handling of his case, stating that the process used to ban him from the sports centre was “unfair” and the punishment “disproportionate”.

The OIA also upheld a complaint from the student regarding what it called “misleading” publicity that claimed UNNC was a “full and integral part of the University of Nottingham”, reflecting wording on the institution’s logo that lists: “Nottingham, China, Malaysia”.

In fact, “UNNC is not a campus of the university” because it is a “separate legal entity” partly owned by the Zhejiang-based Wanli Education Group, with Nottingham acting as the degree-awarding provider, explains the OIA.

“Until recently, it was being advertised to students as if UNNC and the university were one and the same organisation when that was not the case. We think this was misleading to students and unreasonable,” says the OIA decision.

In practice, it meant that the student was not entitled to complain to the OIA in the same way as students in Nottingham because the UK university was only responsible for academic matters, with everyday matters covered by UNNC, the watchdog says. However, it could look at the complaint “insofar as it relates to the university’s acts or omissions”, it adds.

That legal distinction between Nottingham and UNNC was crucial because it meant that the UK university was not directly responsible for student and staff welfare, said James Walker, who recently quit as an associate professor of engineering at UNNC, having worked at the China campus for 12 years.

“The University of Nottingham pretends that these are branch campuses and that the students are attending a branch campus of Nottingham and staff are working for Nottingham,” explained Dr Walker, who said that the “charade is achieved through the logo and because all staff academic appointments have a member of Nottingham present in the interview.

“The truth is that UNNC is a Chinese college that bears Nottingham’s name and has Nottingham’s degree-awarding powers.”

A Nottingham spokeswoman said it was “taking appropriate action in response to recommendations made by the OIA”.

“We remain proud to deliver an academic and student experience in Ningbo which is resolutely Nottingham in its character,” she said.

“The degree awarded to UNNC students is a University of Nottingham degree, with standards overseen by the [Quality Assurance Agency], and all classes associated with degree-conferring programmes are taught in English.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com

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Reader's comments (8)

I am not sure Nottingham is right to be proud. “The degree awarded to UNNC students is a University of Nottingham degree, with standards overseen by the [Quality Assurance Agency], and all classes associated with degree-conferring programmes are taught in English.” The fact that classes are taught in English is surely not enough to justify it being called a "university of Nottingham degree". I would hope that Nottingham staff are a bit more involved in the teaching and supervision or they are likely to dilute the brand and that of other UK Universities with overseas degree awarding spin offs. Quality is everything in HE and rubber stamping local delivery is not the way to achieve long term success.
For one, the Russell Group must be content with the quality of Nottingham China, whose social sciences and engineering departments independently ranked top 1% and 0.5%, respectively, of Essential Science Indicators global rankings this year, according to the China Campus. (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TxolZK4vyRmCaDk8t-qNlw) In addition to this contribution to boosting the UK university's research rankings, the China Campus said it has also sent 30% of its undergrads into top 10 universities worldwide for further studies. A great social, economic impact. So how can any 'rubber stamping overseas spin off' pull this off ? Perhaps in a post-truth world, we only believe what we choose to believe about quality ? It's only unfair that some universities still require IELTS tests for its China Campus graduates, who have studied in full English-language modules, with the same contents, delivery and quality as those in the UK, for four years or more.
"I would hope that Nottingham staff are a bit more involved in the teaching and supervision or they are likely to dilute the brand and that of other UK Universities with overseas degree awarding spin offs. Quality is everything in HE and rubber stamping local delivery is not the way to achieve long term success." Indeed, some UK Universities have been burnt by their overseas campus 'adventures', one I know of was almost bankrupted by their adventure and is still struggling even having sold off all of their prime real estate. Another I know only too well is disengaging from the Chinese campus it is/was associated with, how much effect the report from their H&S specialists visit had is open to question. But students being locked into tower-block residences using bicycle U locks through the outside door handles of the ONLY external doors (no 'fire exits') at night and damaged exposed wiring in teaching blocks were considered normal by the local Chinese campus staff. Imagine the reputational damage potential!
But the QAA has emphatically endorsed it, 'As an integral part of the University of Nottingham, the academic standards and the quality of the student learning experience at UNNC are equivalent to those of the home university.' (https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/international/university-of-nottingham-ningbo-campus-tne-12.pdf) It's been quoted everywhere during the recruitment of students to its China Campus. So which has a say on this, QAA or OIA ? Or is the author(ity) already dead in our interesting time of multi-level governance ?
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If 'that was not the case,' then it begs the question why the OIA only takes such an action after nearly two decades of inaction, during which nearly 20,000 students were 'misled' by the British university. The OIA must have been aware of the China Campus long before, since the students have sent complaints to it. Now what are the students gonna do ?
Only discovered this page today. I guess the misleading was done to the Chinese students so theoretically the OIA can't do anything.
It is commedable that staff have called it out for what it is. "mid staff claims that its Ningbo outpost is really “a Chinese college that bears Nottingham’s name”. I wish the department of education would make ti a legal obligation to conduct annual staff surveys in UK unis, make the results of these surveys publicly available (is that too extreme) and the REF to include these in the submission pack. This will stop some of the shenaningas going on in some places. Anyway, this issue is nothing compared to the things that actually go in many places.

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