The Institute on Software and Network under the Zhejiang University in east China, the first of its kind in the country, will start to recruit students this month.

Officials from the Ministry of Education said they expect that the institute will help meet the large domestic demand for talented people in information technology in a short time.

It is estimated that with fast development of the information industry in China, domestic demand for computer experts stands at about 200,000 every year, while only some 40,000 graduate annually from universities.

As a result, Zhejiang University, traditionally strong in computer science, found itself unable to provide enough graduates to help meet demand.

The institute set up in February will adopt some of the best teaching materials abroad and invite core technicians from major corporations as guest professors.