Home > UGC Publications > Press Releases > 2011 > Over 12 400 university students participate in CEPAS

Over 12 400 university students participate in CEPAS

The University Grants Committee (UGC) announced today (February 1) that over 12,400 final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes have registered for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) under the ninth round of the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS). The number of registered participants is a record-high, and represents an increase of about 3% as compared with the figure last year.

Commenting on the registration number, Mr Michael Stone, Secretary-General of the UGC said, "With the assistance of our institutions, the ninth round of registration for the Scheme in 2010/11 has been successfully completed. 12,427 final year students have submitted their applications this time. Given the voluntary nature of CEPAS, the number of participants demonstrates that students attach great importance to their English proficiency."

CEPAS was first launched in 2002/03. The participation number has been increasing steadily, from around 7,300 final-year students in 2002/03 to almost 12,100 in 2009/10 round.

To facilitate participants, the UGC has been improving the registration and testing arrangements over the years. Starting from 2006/07, students can register online. In this round, over 99% of students have chosen to register online. In addition, summer testing sessions have been offered since 2005/06. Out of a total of 40 testing sessions to be organised in 2010/11, 16 are summer testing sessions. More than 4,900 students have registered to take part in these sessions.

A breakdown of the number of participants by institution is at the Annex for reference.

Ends/Tuesday, February 1, 2011
NNNN

 

Annex

Number of Participants in
Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme in 2010/11

 

Institution 2010/11
No. of participants*1 Percentage of its projected graduates
City University of Hong Kong 2,300 73%
Hong Kong Baptist University 1,061 64%
Lingnan University 564 72%
The Chinese University of Hong Kong 2,210 72%
The Hong Kong Institute of Education*2 403 76%*2
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2,414 81%
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 1,487 74%
The University of Hong Kong 1,988 59%
Total :
12,427 69%

*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.

*2 401 of the 403 candidates from HKIEd are full-time students, accounting for 76% of projected graduates from full-time programmes in 2010/11. The 403 candidates account for 42% of projected graduates of all programmes in 2010/11.