Sources from the Ministry of Education (MOE) said the China Scholarship Council (CSC) will fund 7,000 applicants to study overseas in 2006. with more Chinese graduate students to be included.

The CSC will issue an action plan in 2006 stipulating the standard and measures for funding overseas study.

The CSC will mainly sponsor the sino-British "excellent" scholarship and the sino-French doctorate program, aiming to increase the number of Chinese students studying abroad and make graduates and doctors a larger proportion of the population, sources from the CSC said.

The CSC will also initiate an online application and appreciation system next year to simplify the process and boost efficiency.

In 2005, the CSC funded 7,000 applicants to study overseas, increasing 75 percent over last year, ranking it the largest number of students-dispatching since China's reform and opening upin late 1970s.

Since 1996, China has sent 22,031 people to study overseas, about 97 percent of whom have come back when they completed their studies.