Students came to China attracted by its unique culture and low cost of living and tuition, he said.

Last year, foreign students came from 188 countries and regions and studied in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the Chinese mainland, official figures showed.

Chinese universities provide both diploma education and non-diploma education, with the former including senior and junior undergraduate students, masters students, and PhD candidates, and the latter including trainees and research scholars.

Last year, more than 68,000 foreign students came to China to seek diploma education.

More than 10,000 foreign students were sponsored by Chinese government scholarships last year, up 20 percent from that of the previous year.

Most of the international students, or more than 72 percent, came from Asia last year. Thirteen percent hailed from Europe, 10 percent from the Americas, 3 percent from Africa and 1 percent from Oceania.

Last year, the top five countries international students in China came from were South Korea, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Thailand, official statistics showed.

The international students study subjects including Chinese, medicine (both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine), basic science, engineering, agriculture, economics and management.

Currently, more than 400 Indian students alone are studying for their degree in medicine at Tianjin Medical University.

The average tuition at a Chinese medical university is between $2,000 and $3,000 a year, plus another $1,000 to cover board and lodging, which is only one-quarter of the cost in India.

"This is much more affordable," said Manpreet Kaur, a second year medical student at the university.