A staff member of the Chinese embassy in London said the university's apology is sincere but it is not enough to completely offset the negative effect.

"The university should do more to repair its image in the eyes of Chinese students, such as not providing speaking platforms for Tibetan separatists," he said.

He also said the boycott by a number of Chinese students and Internet users is "spontaneous and understandable".

Britain is one of the countries with the largest number of overseas Chinese students. More than 49,000 Chinese students enrolled in British universities in the 2006-07 academic year, figures from the British Higher Education Statistics Agency showed.

(China Daily July 8, 2008)