BEIJING - China's top universities began their annual independent recruitment exams on Saturday, with English no longer included among the exams' compulsory subjects.

A student reads an book before an English test prep book shelf in a book store in Yuncheng city, North China's Shanxi province on Feb 6, 2013. [Photo/CFP]

In most of these universities, those who have applied for science and engineering majors will only be required to take math and physics exams, while art students will be required to take Chinese and math exams.

Yu Han, an enrollment officer at Tsinghua University, said the subject was eliminated in order to reduce students' workload and attract talented students who excel in the targeted subjects.

Independent college entrance exams are held three months before the national exams, a process that allows universities to recruit more talented students.

This year, 27 Chinese universities are joining three leagues represented by Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), with all three leagues holding recruitment exams simultaneously.

The Peking University league consists of 11 universities, including Hong Kong University and Beijing Normal University.

The Tsinghua league is composed of seven universities, including the University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Renmin University and Zhejiang University.

The BIT league is made up of nine schools, including the Harbin Institute of Technology and Tongji University.