The four universities, which are now facing the wrath of the public, are renowned for their study and research in fields of engineering, mechanics, design, economics and finance.

"For these universities, testing English is essential because students need to use the language quite often in the future, especially when we go on exchange programs, visit overseas colleges and do research. Many important monographs and periodicals are in English," said Jia Yu, a 17-year-old high school student who plans to sit for the independent admission examination next year.

"Chinese, however, is our mother tongue and it is assumed that local students would know the subject pretty well. There isn't much of a point to test our Chinese skills at entrance exams for colleges that don't have much to do with Chinese as a language anyway," Jia said.

But Tina Zhu, an 18-year-old high school student, felt a different way.

"Many of my classmates excel in math, chemistry and physics, but they really have to struggle to compose an essay in Chinese. One of my classmates learned an essay template by heart and wrote the same essay in more than 10 exams."

Jewel Harris, a visitor from England, said her feelings with regard to the importance attached to English in China were mixed.

"I was in a park when a 13-year-old boy came and struck up a conversation with me in English. I was quite amazed. It made me realize that schools and universities were making great efforts to help students learn English," she said.

"I have no idea why students' Chinese was not tested at this particular exam. But in my country, verbal ability, that is English, is always tested in admission exams."