Cutting city's twinning link to China could have cost university more than £70m

CONSEQUENCES REVEALED IN NEWLY-RELEASED DOCUMENTS

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

THE University of Nottingham claims it could have lost more than £70 million a year if a relationship with a Chinese city had come to an end.

Newly-released documents show that Nottingham's two universities called for the city council to urgently seek Foreign Office advice on ending its relationship with Ningbo, saying the decision would cause “embarrassment” and “insult”

Both universities also claimed the decision would create a “hostile environment” for Chinese students, visitors and businesses.

Figures show that across both Nottingham universities, 4,237 of its students came from China during the 2021/22 academic year.

Nottingham City Council considered ending its formal twinning relationship with Ningbo in 2023 after protestors raised human rights concerns about the actions of the Chinese state.

The new documents, which the city council was forced to publish after a recent court ruling, now reveal the strong opposition raised by both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

Nottingham’s relationship with Ningbo began when the University of Nottingham opened a 14-acre campus there in 2004, the first foreign independent university campus to be established in China.

Opened by then deputy prime minister John Prescott, the Ningbo Campus includes a lake and its own version of Nottingham’s Trent Building.

The relationship with Ningbo has continued to grow since the formal twinning arrangements were established in 2005. The extension of Nottingham’s tram network saw the steel bridge spanning the city’s ring road named the Ningbo Friendship Bridge in 2014.

A petition calling for this relationship to be reviewed created by the Nottingham Stands with Hong Kong group was signed by more than 1,500 people.