TIANJIN, April 29 (Xinhua) -- A program was launched Monday to encourage China's universities to foster more outstanding talent, according to a press conference.

Jointly launched by the Ministry of Education, the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and 11 other departments, the program aims to improve China's higher education in engineering, medicine, agriculture, as well as liberal arts from 2019 to 2021, to enhance universities' capabilities to serve the country's social and economic development, authorities said.

The program will help universities fully optimize their structure of majors and expand their reform of majors, and inspire students' interest and potential, to comprehensively vitalize undergraduate education and improve the quality of talent cultivation, said Minister of Education Chen Baosheng.

It is a combination of two previous higher education programs. One starting 2009 focused on top talent cultivation in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science at 20 universities including Tsinghua University and Peking University, and has benefitted 9,800 college students over the past 10 years.

Another program was launched in 2010 in universities in cooperation with research institutions, authorities and enterprises, on fostering talent in engineering, law, journalism and mass communication, agriculture and forestry, as well as medicine, with priority on improving practical skills. It has covered about 260,000 students at 210 universities in the country.