BEIJING, Jan. 30 -- Twenty cyber culture societies from universities and colleges, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, were named by the Ministry of Education on Friday as model programs.

The ministry began a nationwide selection process in July last year to hand pick 20 projects of excellence from 145 societies at 141 universities and colleges, it said in a statement.

Through the selection, the ministry hopes to inspire students to join cyber culture societies as they would have a guiding role in upholding socialist core values.

Yangzhou University's cyber culture society was lauded for its project "Guai Guai Long Di Dong", which is a local expression of surprise, an online TV program that features campus news and student's stories.

The ministry said that educational institutions must further promote ideological and cultural content, and allow students the freedom to play a key role in developing cyber culture on campus.

On Thursday, during a forum on improving ideological work in universities and colleges, Education Minister Yuan Guiren called for better management of campus networks and societies.