Almost 11 400 university students participate in CEPAS
The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (June 25) that almost 11 400 final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes have registered for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) under the twelfth round of the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).
"With the assistance of our institutions, the twelfth round of registration for the Scheme in 2013/14 has been completed successfully. A total of 11 379 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 the Secretary-General of the UGC, Dr Richard Armour.
CEPAS was first launched in 2002/03. In the past years, the participation number grew steadily and stabilised in recent years, from around 7 300 final-year students in 2002/03 to around 11 500 in 2012/13.
There are a total of 45 testing sessions in the 2013/14 round of CEPAS. To facilitate students' participation, online registration and summer test sessions have been made available to participants. In this round, more than 4 900 students have registered to take part in the 19 summer testing sessions.
A breakdown of the number of participants by institution is at the Annex for reference.
25 June 2014
Annex
Number of Participants
in
the Common English Proficiency Assessment
Scheme in 2013/14
| Institution | 2013/14 | |
|---|---|---|
| No.
of participants*1 |
Percentage of its projected graduates | |
| City University of Hong Kong | 2 063 | 64% |
| Hong Kong Baptist University | 1 052 | 61% |
| Lingnan University | 495 | 74% |
| The Chinese University of Hong Kong | 2 196 | 60% |
| The Hong Kong Institute of Education*2 | 600 | 72% |
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | 1 948 | 60% |
| The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | 1 300 | 60% |
| The University of Hong Kong | 1 725 | 46% |
|
Total :
|
11 379 | 58% |
*1 The figures exclude the students who take IELTS outside the Scheme at their own expense before they proceed to the final year of studies.
*2 597 of the 600 candidates from HKIEd are full-time students, accounting for 72% of projected graduates from full-time programmes in 2013/14. The 600 candidates account for 47% of projected graduates of all programmes in 2013/14.