UK-AUSTRALIA: First British campus down under

University College London will next year become the first UK university with a campus in Australia. This follows the signing of an agreement in London on Thursday with the South Australian government to establish a UCL school of energy and resources in Adelaide.

The government has previously attracted the US Carnegie Mellon University to Adelaide while the British Cranfield University has set up a business development office there to deliver what it says will be "world-class specialist defence education at universities in South Australia".

Under the terms of an agreement with UCL and signed in London by Premier Mike Rann and Professor Malcolm Grant, President of UCL, the school will start work in 2009 and become fully operational the following year. Up to 60 students are expected to enrol in its two-year masters programme in energy and resources but the school will also offer executive education programmes for senior industry executives and engineering managers.

As it did in attracting Carnegie Mellon to Adelaide, the state government has allocated A$4 million (US$3.8 million) towards assisting UCL in establishing the school. The government will continue supporting its operations over the first seven years, when the school is expected to be self-financing.

UCL will appoint a director and core academic staff but academics from London will also go out to teach in Adelaide. Joint London-Adelaide research programmes will also be developed, a UCL spokeswoman said