Nottingham rebuked for ‘misleading’ students over China campus

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