A Beijing-based college is to open a three-year course for budding artists interested in cartoon drawing, the first undergraduate course of its kind in China.

Applicants are not required to have an academic background in drawing or visual arts and will need only to pass an entrance exam to gain acceptance to the course, which is sponsored by the Adult Education Institute of the Party School of the Beijing Municipality, Friday's China Youth Daily reported.

Students will take 25 courses including an introduction to fine arts, map making, sociology, and life painting during the three years, according to noted cartoonist Xu Pengfei.

The course, to begin in September, is a pilot scheme aimed at nurturing cartoon talent in the hope of injecting fresh blood into the country's culture industry, the newspaper cited Zhu Mingde, a senior official with the Beijing Federation of Literature and Art, as saying.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)