BEIJING - China's education and military authorities have jointly launched a program to step up the cultivation of future military engineers from selected university students, an official statement said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said in a statement that the MOE and the four general departments of the People's Liberation Army recently issued a joint circular signalling that the program would be launched from this year.

Program candidates will be picked from top university juniors who are already being trained by civil universities for national defense purposes and are set to formally join the service after graduation.

Selected students will undergo a 6- to 12-month-long field study in military academies, research institutes, troop units equipped with new kinds of armaments and armament production enterprises, according to the statement.

The ministry said the program is intended to make best use of quality resources held by the civil and military circles to boost students' military engineering capabilities and speed up their readiness as future high-calibre engineering professionals.

Around 300 students will be selected for the new program this year, according to the statement.