Universities in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have begun a lecture series on the thoughts of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The nationwide "Ten million teachers and students having the same class to study new thoughts" campaign began in Xinjiang on Friday and will run until June 20, Zhang Lijuan, a lecturer of the Xinjiang campaign and a professor at Xinjiang Normal University's School of Marxism, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The campaign will cover all colleges and universities in Xinjiang, including vocational schools, Zhang said.

 The lectures have been delivered in 20 schools. Xinjiang students welcome the lectures as colleges and universities actively take part in the campaign, Zhang said.

Colleges and universities can either accommodate 800-1,000 students for the lectures at once in classrooms or live-stream the lecture, according to Zhang.

Organized by the Ministry of Education, the campaign is aimed at promoting Xi's thoughts from his speeches - one recently delivered at Peking University and the other on May 4 at the meeting of the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth,  read a statement on the ministry's website on Tuesday.

The lectures are also being aired on television and streamed online in Xinjiang to make sure every student takes part in the campaign, the statement said.

"The campaign is focused on developing qualified successors of socialism, and to cultivate virtuous talent," Zhang told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The lectures are closely integrated with practices in Xinjiang, Zhang said, adding that they also discuss the anti-secession and anti-infiltration struggles in the autonomous region.

From what we have experienced, some students in Xinjiang have been influenced by religious extremism. The three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism are competing with us for our next generation, Zhang warned.

"We must win this fight… Colleges and universities in Xinjiang are shouldering an important historic duty on this aspect,"  Zhang stressed.

The Xinjiang Police College held a lecture under the campaign on Monday. Some 800 teachers and students studied the new thoughts and the Communist Party of China's strategy on how to govern Xinjiang, Xinjiang Television reported on Monday.

"Especially in Xinjiang, people need to learn the new thoughts and Party's strategy on governing Xinjiang," Xiong Kunxin, an ethnic studies expert and professor at Tibet University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Xinjiang has many minorities, and may have very distinct cultural backgrounds. The study of the new thoughts can bring different groups together, Xiong said.

"The lectures contribute greatly to social stability, ethnic solidarity and people's awareness of a stable Xinjiang," Xiong noted.