Partnering private school East Asia Institute of Management (EASB), it will hold its classes at the school's Henderson Road campus, which belongs to EASB, while looking for a permanent site.

It will be offering a full range of Bachelor and Masters degrees, including accountancy, banking and finance, international business management and international hospitality management degrees.

Other specialisations include electives in casino management and events management.

Under the casino management course, students will cover topics such as casino and gambling management in cosmopolitan society, gaming management and casino operations.

The school is also looking at offering courses in arts and design.

While courses from UWIC have already been offered by the EASB for the last few years, the main difference in the university having a branch campus here is that it will take greater charge of the academic programmes and look into the development of a bilingual curriculum.

From its current 700 students, it hopes to expand to 3,000 in five years.

Its Vice Chancellor, Professor Antony Chapman, said the Asia branch campus will not only be attracting foreign students to Singapore but will act as a springboard to set up collaborations with other universities in the region.

He was at the EASB's Balestier campus to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with EASB chairman Andrew Chua.

Mr Chua believes the setting up of a campus by a foreign university is the way to go to ensure better quality assurance. It is his school's second such collaboration, the first being with Queen Margeret University in Edinburgh.

He said with such a collaboration, students can be assured of long-term commitment by the university, enhanced infrastructure and better facilities.

The university will also take on the responsibility of ensuring the quality of students, lecturers and examinations.

For instance, the courses will be conducted by both local as well as UWIC lecturers. Local lecturers are validated by the university and appointed adjunct or senior lecturers.

Courseware and study materials will also come directly from the university, with lecturers and students having total access to its online learning resources such as bulletins and journals.

Local faculty staff will also receive training on delivery methods and marking of examination scripts.

UWIC was the top ranked 'new university' in Wales in the 2007 UK Sunday Times League Table and is well-regarded for its career-orientated degree courses, with 95 per cent of its graduates gaining employment or undertaking further study within six months of completing their studies.