The South University of Science and Technology of China released on Tuesday afternoon its student enrollment plan for this year on its official website in the form of an open letter from the president saying it is signing up 180 students from eight provinces on the mainland. All will get scholarships.

It is the first time SUSTC is enrolling students after it was officially approved by the Ministry of Education in April. Last year, while still unauthorized, it enrolled its first batch of 45 students who took the university's own examination instead of the college entrance exam.

According to the plan, students need to first take the college entrance examination and then a second test set by the university, which will probe memory, imagination, attentiveness and perspective. The former counts for 60 percent and the latter 30 percent in determining who gets in. Performance in high school counts for 10 percent.

All recruited students get a scholarship of 6,000 yuan ($945) a year for four years. Freshmen whose total scores rank in the top 30 percent get the chance to assist teachers in research work and receive subsidies from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a year for four years. Those whose families have financial difficulties receive a further 10,000 yuan a year. There are also various types of scholarships, said the letter.

SUSTC, established in 2009 in Shenzhen with sponsorship from the Shenzhen government, was regarded as a pioneer in college education reform. Instead of having a president assigned by the central government or local authorities, SUSTC has a 20-member board of directors for policymaking. Its president, Zhu Qingshi, wants it to become an international research-intensive university that enjoys high autonomy in student enrollment and academic research.