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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (February 1) that over 12,400 final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes have registered for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) under the ninth round of the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS). The number of registered participants is a record-high, and represents an increase of about 3% as compared with the figure last year.
Commenting on the registration number, Mr Michael Stone, Secretary-General of the UGC said, "With the assistance of our institutions, the ninth round of registration for the Scheme in 2010/11 has been successfully completed. 12,427 final year students have submitted their applications this time. Given the voluntary nature of CEPAS, the number of participants demonstrates that students attach great importance to their English proficiency."
CEPAS was first launched in 2002/03. The participation number has been increasing steadily, from around 7,300 final-year students in 2002/03 to almost 12,100 in 2009/10.
To facilitate participants, the UGC has been improving the registration and testing arrangements over the years. Starting from 2006/07, students could register online. In this round, over 99% of students have chosen to register online. In addition, summer testing sessions have been offered since 2005/06. Out of a total of 40 testing sessions to be organised in 2010/11, 16 are summer testing sessions. More than 4,900 students have registered to take part in these sessions.
A breakdown of the number of participants by institution is at the Annex for reference.
Ends/Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:03
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