BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 85,000 international students studied in postgraduate programs in China in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 12.28 percent, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

Among 492,200 international students studying in China last year, 52.44 percent were studying in degree programs, up 6.86 percent from 2017, said a press release from the ministry.

The growth of international students in engineering, management, science and agricultural science all reached 20 percent, indicating the increasing attraction of science programs in China, the statement said.

The international students in China came from 196 countries and regions and 52.95 percent of them were from 64 countries along the Belt and Road.

About 63,000 of them were sponsored by Chinese government scholarships, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese studying overseas reached 662,100 last year, 53,700 more than that in 2017, the ministry said in March.

Among those, 65,800 were sponsored by public funding while 596,300 were self-funded.