Tsinghua University in Beijing announced on Sunday that the number of students it intends to recruit in China this year will remain the same as in 2013.

Yu Han, director of Tsinghua University's admission office, said at a press conference on Sunday that the university plans to recruit 3,372 students this year. Roughly 10.8 percent of those will be recruited in Beijing, also the same quota as last year.

Though recruitment numbers remain the same, Yu said the university's recruitment policy will favor students from central and western regions, as well as from poverty-stricken areas.

"In recent years, we have carried out 10 ways of recruitment to assure fair and transparent enrollment with diversity, such as students with art specialties, student athletes and national defense students, as well as those from poverty-stricken areas," Yu said.

In recent years, about 60 percent of students were admitted to Tsinghua University through the regular national college entrance examination, or gaokao. The university has carried out independent recruitment for more than a decade. Yu said that in 2013, about 95.1 percent of students were accepted to the major for which they applied.

He also said the university will start an experimental class for the first time in its department of mechanical engineering this year, for which it aims to recruit 30 students.

University statistics show that 54.4 percent of students who graduated in 2013 continued further education in China, and 27.3 percent went overseas for further education.