Chinese authorities have pledged $461.5-million to improve higher education in the Tibet Autonomous Region with the goal of raising gross-enrollment rates to 30 percent by 2015, reports Xinhua, the official news agency for the Chinese government. Part of the money will support efforts to make Tibet University a leading international institution, officials said.

The announcement came as China’s vice president, Xi Jinping, visited Tibet University as part of a delegation of Chinese officials that traveled to Tibet to mark the 60th anniversary of its “peaceful liberation,” says Xinhua.  The anniversary is controversial, however, with many Tibetans saying it marks the year their nation’s leaders were forced to sign an agreement that ostensibly made Tibet a part of China.