This Day, That Year: May 27

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On May 27, 1983, the country's first 18 PhD students graduated. Since then, the number of graduates has grown exponentially, reflecting the dramatic expansion of higher education.

An item from July 6, 1994, in China Daily showed 559 students from Tsinghua University's graduate school at their graduation ceremony in Beijing.

In 2004, China overtook the United States in terms of both the number of students enrolled and the number of degrees awarded annually.

In 2008, the nation surpassed the US as the top annual producer of graduates with doctoral degrees.

More than 8.34 million students are expected to graduate from universities and colleges this year, according to the Ministry of Education.

The figure was only 165,000 four decades ago.

In recent years, China has accelerated its pace to become an international power in higher education. Chinese universities have risen in the global rankings.

Tsinghua University in Beijing was placed at the top of the recently released Times Higher Education's Asia University Rankings.

It's the first time a university from the Chinese mainland has taken the No 1 position in the London magazine's Asia table. Seventy-two Chinese universities were ranked, up from 63 last year.

This leads to a growing number of international students coming to China.

Last year, a total of 492,185 international students from 196 countries and regions studied in the country, a slight increase on the previous year, according to the Ministry of Education.

In 2017, China listed 42 colleges it wanted to make "world class", and the injection of financial aid was welcomed.

China has deepened its international cooperation on education, and by the end of last year, five universities had set up branches or institutes overseas.

Meanwhile, a growing number of world-leading institutions, including Yale, Harvard and Duke, have set up centers or campuses in China.