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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (September 13) the results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes under the 2009/10 Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
Almost 12,100 final year students, or about 68% of all full-time and part-time undergraduate final year students, participated in CEPAS in 2009/10. This represents an increase of about 2.3% in the number of participants compared with last year, and is a record high.
The average overall score is 6.72 on a nine-point scale. About 86.4% of the students obtained a score in the 6.0-7.5 range, which means they are "competent" or "good" users of the English language.
Among the four modules of the test, students on average did better in "reading" and "listening", scoring overall 7.35 and 7.27 respectively. The average scores in "writing" and "speaking" are 5.96 and 6.04 respectively. Institutions are encouraged to utilise the CEPAS results to formulate their English language enhancement strategies and programmes.
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 2008/09 and 2009/10, broken down by broad academic discipline and by institution, are attached at Annexes C and D.
Despite the scheme's voluntary nature, the number of participants in 2009/10 is a record high. The high participation rate demonstrates that the students attach great importance to their English proficiency. 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 of English.
For the 2009/10 round of CEPAS, 40 testing sessions were held from July 2009 to May 2010. For the 2010/11 round of CEPAS, the registration period is from April 1 to 30, 2010 (Period 1) and September 1 to October 19, 2010 (Period 2). Students may continue to register online (www.ugccepa.com). Summer testing sessions will continue to be offered until November 2010 so as to facilitate both students and employers.
The UGC encourages all final year undergraduate students of UGC-funded degree programmes to participate in the scheme. Test fees will be reimbursed once if students agree to reflect their participation in CEPAS in their transcript. The actual test score however will not be shown.
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. The IELTS has been adopted by the UGC as the Common English Proficiency Assessment since 2002/03. Through the assessment, the 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.
The IELTS is an internationally validated English testing instrument, and is jointly managed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the British Council and IDP Education Pty Ltd. In recent years, more than 1.2 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 English 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 the IELTS within the two-year validity period are accepted as equivalent to a Level 2 result in the Use of English paper of the Government's Common Recruitment Examination.
Ends/Monday, September 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:16
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