KUNMING -- China will further improve quality and opening-up of its educational sector and raise cultural and personnel exchange to a national strategic level, said China's Deputy Education Minister Hao Ping on Sunday.

Efforts will be exerted to serve both overseas students in China and domestic students going abroad, and to support schools jointly-run by China and foreign countries, Hao said, adding that China planned to send 29,000 government-sponsored students this year as part of an initiative to train talent with global vision.

About 523,700 Chinese studied abroad in 2015, making China world's top source of overseas students. China is also the world's third largest study destination following United States and Britain, which saw nearly 400,000 students from across the world last year.

Sino-foreign cooperative education has progressed well in recent years. China has established more than 2,400 cooperative programs with 700 strong overseas universities and, has signed agreements on mutual recognition of academic degrees and diplomas with 44 countries and regions.

"Education is the priority among priorities in cultural and personnel exchange. China has begun national-level educational cooperation with countries include the United States, Russia, Britain and France, and will raise such exchange to a national strategic level in the future," noted Hao.