ATLANTA - The Savannah College of Art and Design will open a campus in Hong Kong where students can major in everything from animation to advertising.

The private school, which already has campuses in Savannah and Atlanta and an international campus in Lacoste, France, will offer 14 degree programs at the new Chinese location starting in the fall of 2010, said Pamela Rhame, senior vice president for admissions and communications.

"We've just jumped into this wholeheartedly," Rhame said in a recent telephone interview. "We know this will be something very exciting for students."

The student body will include local residents, as well as students wanting to study abroad, Rhame said. And the faculty will be a mix of professors from the area and instructors from SCAD's campuses in the United States, she said.

The college has long had ties with Asia through work with interactive toy maker Vtech, based in Hong Kong, and a healthy number of international students from that area, Rhame said. But recently, administrators were contacted by Hong Kong developers looking for advice on renovating historic properties in urban areas - an area of expertise for SCAD faculty and students, who have revamped ramshackle buildings in Atlanta and Savannah.

That's when college administrators decided to apply for permission to open a campus in one of Hong Kong's historic districts.

The new campus will start with 300 students and 14 faculty members, but enrollment is expected to grow to 1,500 in the next five years. Programs will include photography, advertising, graphic design, illustration and animation.