The Chinese government will start from this year to send 5,000 young college teachers abroad each year to study for doctor's degree or undertake academic research in top foreign universities.

"This will be the largest in scale for the government to fund so many teachers to study abroad," said Zhou Ji, minister of education, at a ceremony on the project of sending outstanding young teachers to study abroad in Wuhan over the weekend.

The project, set up by the China Scholarship Council, plans to select academic leaders, promising scholars and outstanding young and middle-aged teachers to take further study abroad.

The project will be covered by the China Scholarship Council and universities the teachers work with.

About 50 universities participate in this program, among which 28 universities, including the prestigious Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University, signed on the project as the first group on Sunday. Others will join in the program by the end of January.