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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) today (August 20) announced results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes under the 2007-08 Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
More than 11,000 final year students, or about 71% of all full-time and part-time undergraduate final year students, participated in CEPAS in 2007-08. This represented an increase of about 14%, in terms of number of participants, as compared with last year.
The average overall score was 6.62 on a nine-point scale. About 87% of the students obtained a score in the 6.0¡V7.5 range, which meant they were ¡§competent¡¨ or ¡§good¡¨ users.
Among the four modules of the system, students, on average, did better in ¡§reading¡¨ and ¡§listening¡¨, scoring overall 7.18 and 7.04 respectively.
Breakdowns of candidates¡¦ average scores by broad academic discipline and by institution are attached at Annexes A and B. Comparisons of the overall average scores in 2006-07 and 2007-08, broken down by broad academic discipline and by institution, are attached at Annexes C and D.
Commenting on this round¡¦s results, Secretary-General of the UGC Secretariat Mr Michael Stone said, ¡§We are encouraged to have a record high number (more than 11,000) of final year students participating in the scheme. It is also pleasing to note that the test results demonstrate the vast majority of the graduates who took the test are ¡¥competent¡¦ or ¡¥good¡¦ users, which is the level required by many employers and overseas academic institutions¡¨.
¡§CEPAS is a voluntary scheme. The encouraging participation demonstrates that the students attach great importance to their English proficiency. The scheme is, at the same time, attracting more recognition from society. In addition to the Civil Service Bureau, more professional and employer bodies have accepted CEPAS results for recruitment purpose. We shall continue to promote CEPAS targeting employers, students, as well as the wider community,¡¨ he said.
Forty-one testing sessions were held from July 2007 to May 2008. For the 2008-09 round of CEPAS, the registration period began on April 1, and will last until October 17. Students may use the online registration service by visiting the CEPAS website (www.ugccepa.com). Summer testing sessions will continue to be offered until October to facilitate both students and employers.
UGC encourages all final year undergraduate students of UGC-funded degree programmes to participate in the scheme. Test fees will continue to be reimbursed (once only) if students agree to reflect their participation in CEPAS in their transcript. The actual test score however will not be shown. For those who wish to obtain more detailed information, they may visit the CEPAS website, call the IELTS hotline at 2620 0321 or contact the Registrar¡¦s Offices of their respective institutions.
CEPAS is a voluntary assessment scheme intended to encourage students to be more aware of the importance of proficiency in English, and to provide a common framework for assessing and documenting graduating students¡¦ English proficiency. IELTS has been adopted by UGC as the Common English Proficiency Assessment since 2002/03. Through the assessment, UGC aims to benchmark the English proficiency of local university graduates against a reliable and internationally- validated instrument, which will serve as a useful reference for students when they enter the workforce after they have graduated or when they pursue further studies.
IELTS is an internationally-validated English testing instrument, and is jointly managed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the British Council and the IDP Education Australia. In recent years, around one million candidates have taken the IELTS test annually around the world. Its results are reported on a band scale from 0 to 9. Scores are reported in whole and half bands. Candidates scoring Band 6 are considered competent users who have a generally effective command of the language, despite some inaccuracies, while those scoring Band 7 are considered good users who generally handle complex language well.
An overall Band of 6.5 or above with no subtest score below Band 6 obtained in the same sitting in the Academic Module of IELTS within the 2-year validity period of the test are accepted as equivalent to 'Level 2' result in the Use of English paper of the Government¡¦s Common Recruitment Examination.
Ends/Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:01
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