In the shadow of a distinctive bell-tower, a group of British students wander through a well-kept modern campus on their way to lectures. The “University of Nottingham” sign wouldn’t seem unusual but for one fact: it’s 5,760 miles from Nottingham.

The campus in Ningbo, southern China, is home for this year to 57 British students who transferred from the University of Nottingham (UK). They are studying alongside around 3,500 international students enrolled directly at the University of Nottingham (Ningbo), a branch campus of the British university. Next year, 80 British students are due, with similar numbers attending a campus in Malaysia.

Just 1 per cent of British university students completed part of their degree abroad last year, but Nottingham’s overseas campuses are helping to make it a notable exception. “We very much encourage students to undertake some form of international experience,” Vincenzo Raimo, director of Nottingham’s International Office, says. Seventeen per cent of its students do at present. “We think it broadens their minds and improves their job prospects and is also great fun,” Raimo says. With a variety of study abroad options, “it’s not just traditional years abroad for language students”.

At Ningbo campus, opened in 2004, students are taught in English, the syllabuses are identical to Nottingham — and staff frequently transfer between the two. The Malaysian Semenyih campus, 30 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, has been operating on the same basis since its inception in 1999. “Students can continue studying exactly the same modules available at Nottingham in the UK but overseas instead — experience the excitement of Asia but within the familiar academic setting of Nottingham University,” Raimo says.

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Transfers are open to anyone getting good grades and whose degree subject is among those taught overseas. Air fares may not be cheap, but the cost of living is — and anyone spending the full year at a branch pays just half the UK tuition fee.

Although Nottingham is the only university with such a scheme in full swing, others are following suit. Bolton, Middlesex and Heriot-Watt all opened branch campuses in the United Arab Emirates in recent years, offering equivalent programmes to those here. All charge students who transfer full international fees — around £6,600 at Middlesex — which helps to explain why only a couple of students have so far done so. Bolton University say that they are working on a financial package to enable more students to go and Heriot-Watt say that letting students complete part of their degrees in Dubai is something they are “looking to pursue in the future”. Meanwhile Newcastle University hopes in four or five years to let its medical students do their elective at a new campus in Malaysia.

With at least 75 British universities now awarding degrees to international students through joint or partner institutions overseas, more look set to offer “in-house” study abroad in the future. Catherine Jones, Academic Secretary at Liverpool University, says that students already use Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China as a base for industrial placements and study transfers might follow. “It is definitely a possibility, because the curriculum is so closely based on ours: we are joint owners and we validate the awards there.”

By remaining within the academic jurisdiction of their British university, students have the added reassurance that the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is checking up on their tuition. A QAA spokesperson explains: “Institutions are responsible for the academic standards of their awards, whether delivered inside or outside the UK. We review the partnership arrangements and the programmes delivered on overseas campuses.”

Kevin Van-Cauter, higher education adviser at the British Council, has helped universities to set up programmes overseas. He emphasises the advantage of foreign campuses: “It’s the same course — completely comparable, there’s no credit transfer. And you have a very multinational campus.” Often newly built, the campuses have “state-of-the-art facilities”.

Some advantages — “cheaper living costs” and “employability” — are shared by more conventional study abroad programmes. The most common exchange scheme is Erasmus, launched by the European Commission in 1987. Last year, 10,303 UK Erasmus students transferred across Europe for study or work placements that contributed to their degree — including one student who went to Liechtenstein.

Even for those headed to the most popular destination, France, starting out at a new university and studying in a foreign language can be daunting. Erasmus emphasise that their programmes are for all subjects — and a few European universities do teach in English — but the majority require at least some “linguistic aptitude”.

“I was petrified,” Katie Haines, 21, who ventured from UCL to the Sorbonne in Paris, admits. Her French skills were rusty — “there was no way I could speak to a local”. Despite what she describes as “appalling” facilities, she says she benefited academically. Her four-year degree — classics with study abroad — meant that she wasn’t missing out on UK modules, while her horizons were broadened because “the canon is completely different in Paris”.

Financially, the Erasmus scheme can prove even more generous than overseas campuses: students don’t pay any tuition fees for the year and automatically receive a bursary. “I actually saved a lot of money,” Haines says. “The way in which you have to rebuild your life in a different country will really help you build your character and give you more confidence.”

David Hibler, Erasmus programme manager for the UK, believes that leaving your own institution needn’t be a concern. Although European institutions aren’t assessed directly by the QAA, the UK universities are held responsible for making agreements with the partner institutions to ensure that the learning outcomes are equivalent. “There’s always going to be the odd failure but it’s not a serious problem,” he says. The lack of syllabus continuity should be seen as “an opportunity to study material that is not available in your own institution. We see it as a way of distinguishing yourself from what might be otherwise a rather similar lot of curriculum vitae appearing before an employer,” he says.

Simon Butt, of the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship, agrees that studying abroad helps career prospects. “When students choose to study abroad they’re venturing into experiences that strengthen their independence, help them understand the different cultural factors that influence social and economic change worldwide, and to undertake global trade and exchange in future,” he says.

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“You feel like you’re on holiday,” Natalie Stoneham, 21, says of life on the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus, where she spent the second year of her management studies degree. “It’s very hot; flip-flop weather every single day. The campus is basically in the middle of a palm tree jungle, it’s absolutely beautiful.”

With no classes on Fridays because Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, Natalie says students work hard at the beginning of the week to make the most of their time off. “I travelled every other weekend — to Bali, Australia and the Philippines.”

And there was no drop-off in how the course was taught. “Nottingham is unique in that it offers the same lecture notes, the same sort of standards and it has the same amount of back-up.”

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