Students in the UK will soon be able to attend one of China's best higher education institutions. The HSBC Business School of Peking University (PHBS) has announced plans to open a new campus in Oxford.

PHBS was founded in 2004 in southern China's mega-city Shenzhen. It provides full-time Master's and MBA programs. The school is now expanding overseas, having bought a campus in Oxford from the Open University in Britain.

The new campus itself will be in an old manor house, Foxcombe Hall, surrounded by the lush pastures of the Oxford countryside.

This move will make Peking University the first Chinese institution to have an overseas branch school. The new campus will open in summer 2018 and enrol students from China, the UK and other European countries.

Its new course will focus on China's finance and enterprise management. Students will be given the opportunity to study for a year at the Oxford campus and another year in China.

"I think the opening of the campus in Oxford can increase our visibility and reputation in the world," Hai Wen, the founding dean of PHBS, told CGTN. "China is more integrated into the world economy, so many people want to do business with China – they want to better understand China. We are the first university so far to have an international school to provide this opportunity. Students have the opportunity to come to China to study for one year. That's our competitive advantage."

Founded in 1898, Peking University is one of China's flagship universities. It currently has two campuses, located in the capital, Beijing, and Shenzhen. 

It ranked the 29th on the "World University Rankings 2016-2017" released by Times Higher Education, the world's leading higher education magazine in September 2016. The position had been improved compared with the the previous year, when it was 42nd.