QINGDAO, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Construction on the University of Rehabilitation Studies, a higher education institution designed for cultivating rehabilitation studies talent, formally began Tuesday with an inauguration ceremony in Qingdao, east China's Shangdong Province.

This comes after the Ministry of Education officially greenlighted the construction on the institution, which, to be sponsored by Shangdong Province and based in Qingdao, has the joint support of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) and the National Health Commission.

Addressing the ceremony, CDPF President Zhang Haidi expressed the hope that the University of Rehabilitation Studies could cultivate more talented people and help bring better rehabilitation services to disabled people.

The institution aims to implement a contemporary and advanced concept of rehabilitation, integrate medicine, life sciences and humanities, and become a research-based and rehabilitation application-oriented university.

There are about 85 million disabled people in China, and rehabilitation is an urgent need for disabled people and tens of millions of families. The country also has more than 40 million elderly people who have lost the ability in full or part to take care of themselves and need high-quality rehabilitation services.