The results of an international English test released Tuesday revealed that more than 80 percent of the city's graduating college students have effective command of the language.

    The University Grants Committee of Hong Kong (UGC) Tuesday announced the results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by final year students of UGC-funded undergraduate degree programs under the 2008/09 Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS).

    Almost 11,800 final year students, or about 71 percent of all full-time and part-time undergraduate final year students, participated in CEPAS in 2008/09.

    The average overall score was 6.69 on a nine-point scale. About87 percent of the students obtained a score in the 6.0 to 7.5 range, which means they are "competent" or "good" users.

    Among the four modules of the system, students, on average, did better in "reading" and "listening", scoring overall 7.34 and 7.15respectively. The average scores in "speaking" and "writing" were 6.04 and 5.97 respectively.

    The CEPAS results provide useful reference for the eight UGC- funded institutions in formulating their English language enhancement strategies and programs. It also provides a common framework for assessing and documenting graduating students' English proficiency.

    IELTS has been adopted by UGC as the Common English Proficiency Assessment since 2002/03.