The first college students started their formal studies on 29 December 1997. The school opening ceremony was two months later. The number of the first course students was 800 and the second was 900. Because of local socio-economic development and increased capacity of the school since the beginning of the third course (1999–2000), about 1300-1400 new students are annually recruited. From the academic year of 2004–2005, of the 1400 new students, 50% studied at the university level and 50% at the college level. Since the academic year 2004–2005, the student population has been increasing gradually and there are over 3000 students in school year 2008- 2009. This raises the student total to about 9,3000.