Fudan University will offer scholarships for foreign freshman students and arrange them to take general knowledge education with their Chinese peers for the first time beginning this fall semester, Fudan officials said Monday.

The Fudan foreign freshmen scholarship is designed to award 14 foreign students who outperformed others in the university's entrance exam and 10 elite postgraduates.

Scholarship winners will be exempted from the first-year tuition - ranging from 23,000 yuan (US$2,840) to 42,000 yuan each year for undergraduate students and 26,000 yuan to 54,000 yuan for postgraduates.

Also, starting this September, Fudan will lump all of its incoming undergraduate foreign students into the same Fudan college, instead of grouping them by specific colleges, for one-year general knowledge education together with their Chinese peers.

Students will begin taking professional classes offered by their own college from the second year of studies.

"We are glad to see Fudan's foreign student number continue to grow in recent years," said Yang Zengguo, deputy director of Fudan's foreign students office. "But the scholarship is expected to bring more elite higher-level degree-program students, rather than short-term language learners."

Fudan received more than 5,400 foreign students last year, mostly non-degree short-term students from neighboring Asian countries. The foreign student number ranked the highest in the city.

This year, the university plans to enroll 584 foreign undergraduate students in more than 60 departments, 56 people less than that of last year.

Undergraduate applicants have to take a written entrance exam, scheduled to be held simultaneously in Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on June 3 and 4 this year.

Previously, exam or interview were not required for foreigners applying for Fudan. All foreign students were admitted based on applications only.