The 2011 UNESCO-China-Africa University Leaders Meeting started on Monday in Paris at the headquarters of the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, aiming to boost collaboration between Chinese and African universities.

The two-day meeting drew 44 university presidents from China and Africa, and their discussion would mainly focus on how to further boost inter-school cooperation.

The meeting would help boost South-South cooperation and is a creative pattern for international cooperation in the education field, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said, adding the meeting will also be "conducive" to raise the education level in African countries.

"This meeting is a new attempt to promote tri-party cooperation between UNESCO, China and Africa," Yuan Guiren, Chinese Minister of Education said at the opening ceremony of the meeting.

"China is willing to join hands with UNESCO and African countries to further develop and strengthen a long-term, stable, equal, mutually-beneficial, and cooperative partnership with Africa in the field of higher education," Yuan added.

According to Yuan, more seminars and academic exchange activities could be held in the future so as to deepen cultural exchanges between both sides, and to bring higher education cooperation to a higher level.

Initiated by Chinese Ministry of Education, the meeting is on the theme of "Prospects for Future Collaboration between Chinese and African Universities" with a focus on college graduates' employment.