NANJING - China's Southeast University and Australia's Monash University have officially opened a joint graduate school in the eastern city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

The Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School is the first sino-foreign graduate facility approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The school is committed to providing quality graduate education with global standards and carrying out top-level joint research, said Yi Hong, president of Southeast University, at the launch ceremony on Thursday.

The school will be complemented by a joint research institute to conduct multi-disciplinary projects on nanotechnology, bioinformatics, water, energy and new materials.

A 60,000-square-meter building that houses the school with cutting-edge facilities to support education and future research activities was also officially opened on Thursday.

The joint graduate school began recruiting students on a trial basis in 2012 with five majors, including industrial design, information technology, transportation systems, applied linguistics and international business.

It has already enrolled 219 students. It plans to recruit 500 students annually and is expected to have 1,000 pupils within three years.

The first students will graduate next year with masters degrees from both parent institutions.

Southeast University is a prestigious Chinese university based in Nanjing city of East China's Jiangsu province. Monash University, based in Melbourne, is the largest university in Australia in terms of the number of students.