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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (February 10) that over 11 800 final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes have registered for the International English Language Testing System under the tenth round of the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
"With the assistance of our institutions, the tenth round of registration for the Scheme in 2011/12 has been successfully completed. A total of 11 832 final year students have submitted their applications this time. Given the voluntary nature of CEPAS, the number of participants demonstrates that students continue to attach great importance to their English proficiency," said Dr Richard Armour, Secretary-General of the UGC.
CEPAS was launched in 2002/03. Following its launch participation numbers grew steadily and stabilised in recent years, from around 7 300 final-year students in 2002/03 to over 12 400 in 2010/11.
To facilitate participation, the UGC has improved the registration and testing arrangements over the years. Since 2006/07 students have been able to register online and in this round of applications over 99 per cent of students chose this method. In addition, summer testing sessions have been offered since 2005/06. Out of a total of 41 testing sessions to be organised in 2011/12, 16 are summer testing sessions. More than 3 900 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/Friday, February 10, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:04
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