One of Australia’s leading tertiary education institutions, Monash University, has signed a A$100m deal with China, despite the country’s decision to tighten foreign investment rules last year amid concerns over growing Chinese influence.

The Monash deal, which will allow Chinese investors and local governments to commercialise its scientific breakthroughs, has been announced at a time when several prominent educational institutions in the US and the UK have been seeking to distance themselves from Chinese entities, particularly Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company accused by the US of spying.

Under Monash’s 10-year agreement, intellectual property developed by the university’s medical and engineering departments will be incubated at the new Monash Technology and Transformation Institute (MTTI), based in Pingshan, in the province of Shenzhen, which is the patent-filing capital of China.