BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Education on July 11 said the country had 36.99 million students enrolled in 2,880 higher education institutions last year.

Although the number was only about 1.4 percent higher than in 2015, it represented a nearly 20-percent leap from 2010 when about 31 million students were enrolled.

The gross enrollment rate of higher education was 42.7 percent in 2016, compared with 27 percent in 2010, but still short of the 50-percent target for 2019 set in a Ministry of Education report last year.

All in all, more than seven million college and university students graduated with bachelor’s degrees last year, about 3.4 percent higher than in 2015.

Some 563,900 students graduated with master’s degrees and doctoral degrees, a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percent.