A record 134,000 Chinese students were beavering away in overseas institutes of learning in 2006, and 90 percent of them have had to pay for the studies themselves,according to an official with the Ministry of Education.

Some 33,400 students returned to China from overseas in 2006, MOE official Shao Wei told a press conference on Monday. He added that almost 80 percent of them had had to pay their own way.

The number of Chinese students overseas has increased by a factor of 11 over the past five years, according to the MOE.

According to a MOE survey released at the press conference, 47.5 percent of overseas Chinese choose to study social sciences and 45 percent opt for engineering and technology.

Administration, finance and computer science are the most popular majors, according to the survey.

Shao said that many Chinese going overseas enroll for the same subjects, which could pose problems for them when they return home to look for a job.

He advised students to think carefully about the Chinese job market before they leave, so that they can make a wise choice concerning their field of study and have better job opportunities on graduation.

Statistics show that more than one million Chinese have studied abroad since the late 1970s and more than 100,000 have studied abroad annually since 2002.