BEIJING - More than 72 percent of overseas Chinese students have returned to China after finishing education abroad since the late 1970s, according to a report from a government-backed agency.

From 1978 to 2011, about 818,400 Chinese students returned home after studying abroad, said a report issued on Sunday by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), which is administered by the Ministry of Education.

In 2011 alone, nearly 186,200 chose to return, nearly 40 percent more than that in the previous year, said the report, adding that the center had offered services to 110,000 of them.

To help those returning students, the center organized a special job fair for them, which is scheduled for November 24.

The fair, featuring more than 500 jobs in big enterprises or public institutions, has attracted more than 1,500 applications, the report said.