BEIJING - The Ministry of Education promised to promote multiple measures to spot talented young people and send them for higher education.

It has encouraged top universities to use an independent exam, besides the national one, to test the students hoping to enter universities in 2012.

"Encouraging universities to select students based on an independent criteria is an important supplement to the country's system of college entrance exams," said a notice released by the ministry on Tuesday.

The new move nullifies earlier rumors that China's educational authority will strangle the increasing number of alliances holding independent university entrance examinations.

Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xi'an Jiaotong University and Nanjing University formed China's first alliance, named the Hua League, of independent entrance examinations in 2010.

The alliance was formed with a view to making life easier for students, as by taking only one exam a candidate could try his luck at five different universities.

Another alliance of the same kind was built later in the same year, including Peking University, Beijing Beihang University, Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, Fudan University, Xiamen University and Hong Kong University.

While the national college examination was considered the only standard of student selection since 1977, self-recruitment has provided an alternate way of seeking out talented students since 2003.

The system provides more opportunities for young people with outstanding skills in specific areas, such as literature, athletics and the arts. But these potential talents are now faced with a crammed examination schedule.

For example, the students, who pass both written and oral tests in the self-enrollment exam, still need to take the college entrance exam. They are given 20 or more bonus marks at college entrance exams and a priority to get admitted.

Luo Wangshu contributed to this story.