China saw big growth in higher education system in the past five years, according to the Ministry of Education.

By 2014, a total of 36.6 million students were studying at 2,824 colleges and universities across the country, taking higher education enrollment rate to 37.5 percent, according to statistics released by the ministry on Friday.

China tops all the countries in terms of the number of college students. It ranks second in terms of the number of colleges and universities, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, admission rate in Chinese universities rose from 59 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in 2014, the ministry said.

In addition, the numbers of master's students and doctoral students grew rapidly. In 2009, China had 1.16 million master's students and 246,000 doctoral students. The number rocketed to 1.54 million and 312,000 respectively in 2014.