BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Minister of Education Yuan Guiren on Friday praised the progress of education cooperation with Britain and called for more.

Britain is a major destination for Chinese students studying abroad and the number of British students who come to China has increased steadily, said Yuan, in an interview with Xinhua ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit to Britain next week.

Last year, Chinese government sponsored 2,400 students studying in Britain and 224 British students in China. By the end of 2014, a total of 150,000 Chinese had studied in Britain. In 2014, more than 6,000 British students came to China, a notable increase from previous years.

"Increasing exchanges between young people of China and Britain not only open more opportunities for their personal development but also inject energy into the relationship in the long run," he said.

Cooperation between universities has also picked up, with Chinese and British universities jointly setting up 17 institutions and 240 programs in China.

In September, the Beijing Normal University and Cardiff University opened a college for Chinese studies in Cardiff. Britain also has the largest number of Confucius Institutes in Europe. Since 2004, education ministers of the two countries have met regularly.