BEIJING - The Ministry of Education has pledged to step up international cooperation in 2019 in order to speed up and expand China's opening up in education.

More should be done to facilitate the flow of students and the mutual recognition of degrees and diplomas, according to an annual work plan published by the ministry Friday.

It pledged to revise the regulations on Chinese-Foreign cooperative education and introduce more supportive policies for Chinese universities in opening overseas branches.

In the meantime, it called for efforts to ensure the education quality of incoming students, as well as reforms on teaching foreign languages in higher educational institutions.

Other subjects of the annual plan include the reform of the supervision and evaluation systems of education, including spot checks of doctoral and master's degree theses.