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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) today (April 1) announced that students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes who expected to graduate at the end of the 2008-09 academic year could register for the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS) from today until 7pm on October 17.
"To facilitate students' participation in CEPAS, the UGC has been improving the registration and testing arrangements over the years. As the online registration system has been operating smoothly since its commencement in 2006-07, we will continue to offer this service for this round of CEPAS. Students can register online by visiting the CEPAS website (www.ugccepa.com), where the dates and availability of each testing session can be found," the UGC Secretary-General, Mr Michael Stone, said.
"With the assistance of the institutions, we will arrange a series of testing sessions from July this year to May 2009 under the scheme for all students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes who will be in their final year in 2008-09 academic year.
"We began to offer summer testing sessions three years ago, and will continue to offer testing sessions from July to October this year. We believe that both job-seekers and employers who need to know CEPAS results at an earlier date will benefit from this option. The first testing session will start in early July," Mr Stone said.
"This year, the registration period is from April 1 to October 17. Students who want to register for the testing sessions from July to October should do so by 7pm on April 25. Students may check these dates by visiting the CEPAS website. Students are encouraged to register as early as possible as the seats are on a first-come, first-served basis, and some testing sessions may become full during the registration period."
As in the past few years, participating students are eligible for reimbursement of the test fee (once only), if they agree to have a statement printed on their transcript indicating that they have participated in the scheme. The statement only indicates participation; it does not contain the actual score.
"Despite its voluntary nature, more than 10,000 final-year students participated in the scheme last year, which was a record number. This year, we again encourage all eligible student to take part in the scheme. We will continue to strengthen our efforts in promoting the CEPAS targeting employers, students, as well as the wider community," Mr Stone said.
For more detailed information, students can visit the CEPAS website, call the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) hotline at 2620 0321 or contact the Registrar's Offices of the eight UGC-funded 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. Through the assessment, the UGC aims to benchmark the English proficiency of local tertiary students against a reliable, internationally validated instrument which will serve as useful reference for students when they enter the workforce after they graduate or when they pursue further studies.
The UGC announced the adoption of IELTS as the testing instrument for CEPAS in July, 2002. IELTS is an internationally validated English testing instrument. In recent years, more than 900,000 candidates took the IELTS test annually around the world. It covers all the four skills in English language, listening, reading, writing and speaking. Its results are reported on a band scale from 0 to 9.
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 two-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/Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Issued at HKT 10:01
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