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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (November 15) the results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes under the 2012/13 Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
About 11 500 final year students, or about 60 per cent of all full-time and part-time final year undergraduate students, participated in the 2012/13 round of CEPAS.
The average overall score attained by the students was 6.7 on a nine-point scale. About 82.7 per cent of the students attained a score in the 6.0-7.5 range, which means they are "competent" or "good" users of the English language in terms of the IELTS scoring system.
Among the four modules of the test, students did better in "reading" and "listening", scoring an overall average of 7.39 and 7.12 respectively. Their average scores in "writing" and "speaking" were 6.0 and 6.04 respectively. Institutions are encouraged to utilise the CEPAS results as part of 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 2011/12 and 2012/13, broken down by broad academic discipline and by institution, are attached at Annexes C and D.
For the 2012/13 round of CEPAS, 45 testing sessions were held from July 2012 to May 2013. For the 2013/14 round of CEPAS, the registration periods were from March 25 to April 30, 2013 (Period 1) and September 2 to November 1, 2013 (Period 2).
CEPAS is a voluntary assessment scheme intended to encourage students to be more aware of the importance of English proficiency, and to provide a common framework for assessing and documenting students' English proficiency. IELTS has been adopted by the UGC as a testing tool under CEPAS since 2002/03. 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.
IELTS results are reported on a band scale from 0 to 9. Scores are reported in whole and half bands. According to the IELTS scoring system, 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 IELTS within the two-year validity period is accepted as equivalent to a "Level 2" result in the Use of English paper of the Government's Common Recruitment Examination.
Ends/Friday, November 15, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:00
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