Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS)

The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (July 23) results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final-year university students under a voluntary assessment called the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS) in 2002/03.

Of the 8,500 students who have taken the test, an overwhelming majority (7,300) are final-year students of UGC-funded degree programmes. Their average overall score is 6.46 on a nine-point scale. Among the four modules of IELTS, students, on the average, did best in Reading but scored lowest in Speaking.

Breakdowns of the candidates' average scores by discipline and by institution are attached at Annexes A and B. It can be seen that across the disciplines and the institutions, the variation of performance, in terms of deviation from the overall average score, is not very significant (two and six percent respectively).

"With the introduction of the CEPAS, we are now able to see a rather comprehensive picture of the English proficiency of university graduates under a common frame. We have also shared the statistics with our institutions to help them in formulating their language enhancement strategies and programmes," a spokesman for the UGC said.

"We believe that the information will also serve as useful reference for recruitment and further studies purposes. We have therefore shared it with major business and professional bodies," he added.

The UGC announced the adoption of IELTS as the common English proficiency assessment in July 2002. Thirty-four testing sessions were held from December 2002 to May 2003. IELTS is an internationally validated English testing instrument. Its results are reported on a band scale from 0 to 9. Candidates scoring Band 6 are considered competent users who have generally effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, while those scoring Band 7 are considered good users who generally handle complex language well.

UGC Secretariat
23 July 2003

Annex A

Distribution of Average Overall Scores and Sub-scores
of Final Year Students in 2002-03 by Broad Discipline

Broad Discipline	No. of final year students participated in CEPAS	Average Reading Sub-score	Average Listening Sub-score	Average Writing Sub-score	Average Speaking Sub-score	Average Overall Score
Arts & Humanities	807	6.74	6.69	6.26	6.38	6.58
Business & Management	2255	6.80	6.60	6.19	6.18	6.50
Education	132	6.39	6.37	6.18	6.14	6.34
Engineering & Technology	1569	6.78	6.46	6.00	5.90	6.34
Medicine, Dentistry & Health	197	6.94	6.85	6.03	6.23	6.34
Physical Sciences	1339	6.73	6.40	5.98	5.90	6.31
Social Sciences	1058	6.87	6.71	6.32	6.35	6.61
Total	7357	6.78	6.56	6.13	6.12	6.46

Annex B

Distribution of Average Overall Scores and Sub-scores
of Final Year Students in 2002-03 by Institution

Institution	No. and percentage1 of final year students participated in CEPAS	Average Reading Sub-score	Average Listening Sub-score	Average Writing Sub-score	Average Speaking Sub-score	Average Overall Score
City University of Hong Kong	1198 51%	6.53	6.36	6.02	6.00	6.29
Hong Kong Baptist University	633 51%	6.34	6.16	5.87	5.87	6.11
Lingnan University	387 55%	6.26	6.03	5.82	5.85	6.06
The Chinese University of Hong Kong	1313 45%	7.06	6.73	6.31	6.24	6.65
The Hong Kong Institute of Education	92 17%	6.27	6.18	5.99	5.93	6.16
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	962 43%	6.59	6.55	5.97	6.03	6.34
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	1271 70%	6.87	6.55	6.05	6.06	6.44
The University of Hong Kong	1501 57%	7.14	6.92	6.43	6.39	6.78
The University of Hong Kong	1501 57%	7.14	6.92	6.43	6.39	6.78
Total	7357 51%	6.78	6.56	6.13	6.12	6.46

1	The percentages of participants of individual institutions are calculated based on their respective numbers of projected graduates in 2002-03. The percentage of the total number of participants is calculated based on the total number of projected graduates of all institutions in 2002-03.