UNIVERSITY lecturers have condemned the opening of a campus in Kazakhstan as a reputational risk to Cardiff University.

The university’s bosses have been under fire by University and College Union (UCU) Cardiff branch members after the threat of 400 redundancies earlier this year and the closure of some courses in Wales.

More than 300 students have started lectures at Cardiff University Kazakhstan, the new campus in the capital Astana.

UCU Cardiff’s Andy Williams said the union had serious concerns regarding staff workload and the speed with which it had been set up.

“This is a country with poor human rights records — we’re worried about that,” Mr Williams said.

Vice-chancellor Wendy Larner said due diligence had been followed and the Kazakh campus offered opportunities for the institution and for Wales.

The new campus is almost 4,000 miles from Cardiff and the university said was part of its strategy to boost transnational education in the wake of financial pressures facing the sector.