BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhuanet) -- China's education industry needs to attract more foreign students despite the increasing number of such students in recent years, according to Chinese Vice-Minister of Education Zhang Xinsheng.

    Chinese universities receive less foreign students than their foreign peers who can provide a better education for them, Zhang said at a press conference here Thursday.

    Statistics show that the ratio of foreign students in China's most prestigious Beijing University and Qinghua University is 2.4 percent and two percent of the total enrollment respectively, while the average figure for world renowned universities is 20 percent.

    This situation requires China's universities to take measures, Zhang said.

    Beside high-profile publicity campaigns, he suggested universities should design programs more tailored to students withdifferent backgrounds and purposes and in the fields which foreignstudents are most interested in.

    Zhang said universities should help those students who come to study China's legal system and economic development and hope to find internship opportunities in local organizations.

    "To provide part-time job opportunities for them will be attractive, because they want to be engaged in real life," Zhang said.

    Once prohibiting foreign students to live off campus, China lifted the ban recently and foreign students now can be integratedinto local communities more easily.

    According to Zhang, China has established a comprehensive management system for foreign students, administered by the Ministry of Education, local governments and the universities.

    There is a special organization to design Chinese-teaching programs for students from different areas of the world. Enditem