The raise of college tuitions in the United Kingdom will not affect international students, and the Imperial College London (ICL), one of the best in the country, welcomes more Chinese students, said Keith O'Nions, rector of the ICL on Saturday.

"Although the tuitions will be raised in universities and colleges in the United Kingdom, it will not affect the international students," O'Nions told Xinhuanet on the sideline of the Global Summit of University Presidents 2011 (GSUP) held in Tsinghua University.

"These changes are for UK students; they are not for international students," said O'Nions. "For international students, there are no changes."

"The big change is that UK students will have to pay more than they paid in the past," he added. "And consequently, the government will give less money directly to the universities for their education, and students will have to get loans."

According to O’Nions, among 60,000 Chinese students currently studying in the UK, some 1,300 are in the ICL, accounting for 10 percent of its total students.

The university is glad to have more top students from China, he said. "Please keep coming, because we are very lucky in imperial college: we got some of the best students anywhere in the world," said O'Nions. "We want the best students from anywhere in the world, a lot from China."

The ICL strives to expand its scholarships available to all foreign students, and it is a major of the university's strategy, he said.

O'Nions, who will also attend Tsinghua's celebration of its centennial anniversary, praised the progress made by Tsinghua and other Chinese universities.

"Specifically in Tisinghua University, it clearly excels and it is a university that is one of the great world universities," said O'Nions. "Other universities also do a world class job, and this has obviously been a huge contribution to the economy of China and its people."

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet