Last year, more than 16,000 faculty and students went abroad for visits and exchanges, and over 3,700 international students from 128 countries were studying at Tsinghua, he said.

It is not the only university pursuing a more globalized education, with neighboring Peking University also recently announcing its Global Excellence Strategy, which aims to enhance international exchanges and cooperation, overcome development barriers, gather high-quality resources and stimulate collegial progress.

The strategy features six development concepts: creativity, leadership, openness, uniqueness, diversity and shaping, the university said.

The institution will continue to take part in exchanges and cooperation with other universities and the international community, fully respect, appreciate and care for the diversity of civilization, and actively build a multicultural environment to attract global talent, it said.

The two universities' global strategies are part of China's continuing efforts to open up its education sector and attract more global talent to higher education institutions.

Last year, some 492,185 international students from 196 countries and regions studied in China, up by 0.62 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Education. Since 2014, China has been the destination in Asia for the largest number of international students.

The number of students pursuing academic education rose by 6.86 percent year-on-year to 258,122 last year. Students studying for master's and doctoral degrees rose by 12.28 percent to 85,062, the ministry said.