On October 12, 1977, the State Council approved the Ministry of Education's Opinions on Higher Education Enrollment in 1977. This restored the college entrance examination system that had been interrupted for eleven years due to the Cultural Revolution. The Opinions stipulated that all workers, peasants, educated youths who had "gone up to the mountains and down to the countryside", new graduates, etc., could apply for the exams, as long as they had graduated from high school or had a similarly commensurate educational level.

In 1966, in the early days of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council announced that "it has been decided to postpone the 1966 recruitment of new students by institutions of higher education for half a year." On July 24, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council issued the Notice on Reforming Enrollment by Institutions of Higher Education; this stated that from this year forward, institutions of higher education shall cancel entrance examinations and adopt a combination of recommendation/selection-based approach to enrollment." Following that point, most new university enrollments were recommended "worker-peasant-soldier students".

In 1972, after meeting with Chinese-American scientist Lee Tsung-Dao, Zhou Enlai also proposed that some high school graduates be directly recruited into university. However, Zhou's proposal was blocked by the Gang of Four. After Deng Xiaoping returned to power in July 1977, he felt that education in China had been lagging behind the advanced countries for a full 20 years; Deng thus decided to restore the national unified system of admission exams for general higher education, to select the best talent.

This new admission system reduced the scale of the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside movement; educated youth who had been in the countryside were no longer limited by their family backgrounds, but could apply for university however they wished. During the Mao Zedong era, there had also been an idea of "cultivating successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat"; the new college exam system made this idea fall on its face. There were more than 5.7 million applicants for the first college entrance exams, about half of whom were educated youths. From among the 1966 and 1967 high school graduates, many whose talents had been buried for many years were again brought to light.

However, the first college entrance exams still exposed many problems. Some students were still restricted from taking the exams due to their family backgrounds; such students were discriminated against, and obstacles were put in their way. Young people working on production teams and farms were even banned from studying or applying for the exams, on the grounds that their productivity would be affected. There were also instances where children of cadres cheated their way into the universities. By 1978, a lot of the chaos was coming under control by vigorous Central Committee regulation; the college entrance examination system was gradually moving onto the right track.

References: Liu Xiaomeng, "A History of China's Educated Youth: The Great Wave (1966–1980)"