Major changes are on the way for Taiwan's college entrance system.

According to the Ministry of Education, the two existing admission channels, school recommendation and "Star Program," will be integrated into a new program, which is expected to expand the number of admissions to 7,649.

The application brochure for college admission by recommendation for the school year of 2011 has been out.

Starting from next year, the diverse college admission programs, that include the Star Program and school recommendation, will be combined into a new program known as "Star Recommendation" in Chinese.

Besides the diverse admission program, high school seniors can also apply individually.

The Star Program, which only has 2006 seats available, sees an increase of admission number to 7,649 after the change.

The program, which required applicants to be in the top 20 percentile of their school, now allow each university to set up its own standard.

Most public and private universities have joined the Star Recommendation program this year, which has new additions of music, art, dance and sports programs.

Each high school could recommend no more than 2 students for admission in such programs.

The cap of accepting 1 applicant in the first and the second round is removed.

As the number of admission increases substantially and more than 9,000 admission slots are available to individual applicants, it is estimated that the admission rate would rise sharply.