Instead of the normal two audition channels, Live and Online, the 8th season introduced the third channel dubbed the Academic Institutions, where schools or universities could send their student in the name of the institute to participate the audition.
12 contestants who were selected by the judging panel will be eligible to compete in the house immediately without having to audition again with the participants from live and Online channels, and will receive their own V number to use in the competition.
However, the judging panel judged that only 9 Academic-Institutions audition participants were qualified to attend the competition as a finalist, resulting in the number of the finalists from the Live and Online audition increased from 12 to 15 contestants.
In which, each weeks of the first three weeks, four contestants who received the fewest popular votes, two from male side and two from female side, will be eliminated until there will be only 12 contestants left in the competition, after that, the main competition of the final 12 will begin.
The contestants were required to between the ages of 15 and 25 years old who are not embedded with music recording contracts.