The government is to pay up to $15 million a year to subsidise final-year undergraduate students who volunteer to sit an English test that gauges their language skills.
The University Grants Committee has adopted the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as the exit test for undergraduates. The government is also considering whether to recognise the results as a reference for vacancies in the civil service.
The test, which assesses listening, reading, writing and oral skills, is used worldwide for assessment of English proficiency for study and work purposes. It is scored on a nine-band scale. A candidate who scores a nine is considered an 'expert' while one achieving band five is rated a 'modest user'.
Jeff Leung Wing-yan, the committee's deputy secretary-general, said yesterday the test would be applicable to students graduating from the 2002-03 academic year onwards on a voluntary basis.
He said each final-year students would be subsidised for one attempt. 'The committee will reimburse test fees for the students if they agree to declare their test results in their graduation transcripts,' he said.
The test fee is about $1,300 and it will cost the committee a total of $15 million a year [after a discount] if all final-year students take the test. About 14,500 undergraduate students graduate every year in Hong Kong.
The test is jointly administered by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the British Council and IDP Education Australia. John Fry, deputy director of the British Council's English Language Centre, said Hong Kong would be the first place in the world which adopted the IELTS as an English exit test for university students.