WORK will start on the Qingdao Campus of Shandong University early next year and students will be recruited in 2013.

    The new campus at Shandong University will be in Aoshanwei County in Jimo, Qingdao.

    The campus will be finished in August 2013 and will take in about 5,000 freshmen in the first year.

    “Qingdao, Jinan and Weihai campuses will transform Shandong University into a school like the University of California. It is the first in China to adopt this multi-campus system,” said a spokesman for the university.

    “The Qingdao campus will host science and engineering programs, especially engaging in emerging high-tech subjects,” he said.

    They were trying to build an environmentally friendly campus, he said.

    Shandong University now recruits about 10,000 undergraduates a year, the largest number in China.

    (Chen Ting, Zang Xuping)