Students who are talented in art, sport and literature can enter these universities despite their lower school scores. For example, Zhang Tianci, a talented violinist from Jinzhou, a city in Liaoning province, earned 60 privilege points to gain entry to Tsinghua University last year.

Many experts see this program as a way to break down the country's exam-dominated education system. There are now 80 universities involved in the program.

However, the content of the test for exceptional admission to colleges comes from outside the high school curriculum, and this is unfair on rural students and students from poor economic circumstances, according to a survey jointly made by the educational research institutes of five cities (Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Suzhou).

"All the requirements about exceptional admission are designed for urban students. It is unfair on us," Wang Cheng, from a rural family in Hebei province, told China Daily.

"We don't even have quality English teachers before the second year of the middle school, let alone after-class tutors and extra-curricular guidance about art or Olympiad math," he said.

Shen Meihua, a researcher at an institution under the Hangzhou education bureau, said: "There might be a renewed emphasis on exam-oriented education if we don't address educational inequity between rural and urban students."