Independent enrollment at seven universities has officially started, and interested students can sign up on the universities' exam website from Dec 15 to 28.

The recruitment encourages excellent high school graduates to take part in the universities’ independent recruitment exams.

The participating universities are Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Renmin University of China, the University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, and Tsinghua University.

According to a regulation from the Ministry of Education, 10 percent of Xi'an Jiaotong University's total enrollment in 2013 will be from independent recruitment, said Zheng Qinghua, director of the school's recruitment office.