An Aberdeen university is set to open a new campus – in South Korea.

The University of Aberdeen is expected to launch the international campus in Hadong, a town in South Gyeongsang Province, in September.

It follows a visit to Aberdeen by a nine-member delegation from the two municipalities in South Korea’s southern area.

The visit earlier this month lasted five days as the delegation held talks with university officials.

An agreement reached in the wake of the visit means the Hadong campus will recruit students who want to enter an initial one-year graduate course in petroleum engineering, starting in this year’s autumn semester.

Aberdeen will become the first British university to establish a campus in South Korea if the plans go ahead.

John Paterson, the University of Aberdeen’s vice-principal for internationalisation, said: “The university is looking forward to opening our new campus in Korea in September.

“The new campus will specialise in offering courses in energy-related disciplines, and is expected to offer access to unique new research facilities in engineering, opening up exciting opportunities in research and teaching.

“Not only this, but the new campus represents a major step forward in the internationalisation of our activities, and in raising the university’s profile in a key region of the world.”

An 18-member faculty is expected to be dispatched to the Hadong campus from the main university.

Last August the South Korean education ministry gave the green light to the opening of the branch.

The university was granted a plan to hold courses in three subjects – petroleum engineering, subsea engineering, and oil and gas topside engineering.

The campus had originally been planned to launch in September last year, but it was delayed, reportedly due to financial issues.

Admission is believed to be limited to 100 students for a one-year masters courses, 60 students for three-year PhD courses and 25 students for the one-year MBA course.