Five of Beijing's top universities said on Wednesday that they planned to recruit more than 1,000 students this year, as they announced their plans for the upcoming academic year in their ninth consecutive joint statement aimed at improving transparency.

The Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing Jiaotong University, University of Science & Technology Beijing, Beijing Forestry University and Beijing University of Chemical Technology announced they would recruit 1,070 students from Beijing this year at a news conference in the capital last week.

Zheng Chaowei, director of BUPT's admissions office says that the BUPT plans to enroll a total of 3,680 examinees from across China to sit this year's national college entrance exam, the gaokao. Hot majors like information and communication engineering and computer science continue to make up a relatively high proportion of enrollments in the capital.

However, all the students will be able to change their majors during the second semester of their first year at university or the first semester of their second year if they manage to pass the qualification exam offered by their target departments.

Similarly, freshmen from BFU will also be entitled to change their majors at the start of their second semester. However, art students will not be able to transfer their majors to subjects outside the artistic disciplines.

This year, to help serve China's poverty alleviation targets and pollution prevention initiatives, BFU has set up new courses such as wildlife and nature reserve management.

BJTU has also initiated a range of new majors to cater to undergraduates at its main campus, including information and network engineering and new media. The university will increase its numbers of newcomers to a total of 4,200 this year.

The number of intakes at USTB will swell to 3,450 for the new semester. The university plans to enroll students for 25 majors, including material sciences, engineering and business administration.

This year, BUCT will enroll a total of 3,850 freshmen. About 15% of the entries of its experimental classes will be given over to Beijing examinees.