Joint announcement by RSS and HKSS in 2001

Joint Announcement by The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and The Hong Kong Statistical Society (HKSS) on the Examination in Hong Kong for the year 2002 and onwards

(Chinese Version)

The RSS and HKSS signed an Agreement in August 2001 under which the examination which has for many years been held by the RSS in Hong Kong will be replaced by the HKSS examination as from the May 2002 round of the examination. Candidates who wish to sit the May 2002 examination in Hong Kong leading to various levels of qualification in the statistical profession should join the HKSS as an Examination Associate on or before 31 January 2002, and then apply to the HKSS to sit specific examination papers within the month of March 2002. The time schedule for the HKSS examination will be the same as that announced for the RSS examination, i.e. the HKSS examination will also take place on 14-16 May 2002.

The RSS and HKSS would like to assure all candidates who are intending to sit the HKSS examination that the syllabuses and examination papers and the standard for marking examination scripts for the May 2002 round will be the same as those of the RSS examination. Candidates who have been taking the RSS examination in Hong Kong are advised to continue to pursue their professional qualification in statistics by taking the HKSS examination. The certificates issued by the HKSS to successful candidates for all levels of the professional examination (i.e. Ordinary Certificate, Higher Certificate and Graduate Diploma) will be endorsed by the RSS and fully recognized by the RSS as of a standard equivalent to those issued by the RSS.

Under the Agreement between the RSS and HKSS, the HKSS will undertake a review of the examination syllabuses with a view to proposing enhancements which will enable the syllabuses to be more geared to the needs of employers and employees in the market of Hong Kong and possibly also other places in the Asian region. New syllabuses and examination papers introduced to the HKSS examination will have the endorsement of the RSS that they are of a standard intellectually equivalent to that of the existing RSS examination syllabuses and papers. It is expected that changes to the syllabuses will be introduced to the HKSS examination as from the May 2003 round of the examination.

It is also a target of the HKSS to introduce bilingual papers (English and Chinese) as from the May 2004 round of the examination to cater for candidates who may wish to sit for the Chinese language version of the papers. Arrangements will be made between the HKSS and RSS to ensure that the marking of the papers in Chinese will be of a standard equivalent to that in English. Again, the qualifications granted by the HKSS to candidates taking the papers in Chinese will be endorsed and fully recognized by the RSS to be of a standard equivalent to the qualifications of the same level granted by the RSS.

Both the RSS and HKSS believe that the above arrangement, particularly that for the HKSS to develop the examination syllabuses in aspects catering for the specific needs of the local Hong Kong economy, should be of benefit to the Hong Kong statistical community.

As with the RSS examination, candidates taking the HKSS examination may be eligible for exemption from taking the examination of the Ordinary Certificate, Higher Certificate or some of the papers of the Graduate Diploma because of the courses in statistics they have taken and passed in certain institutions. They should submit their applications for exemption early for processing by the HKSS and not later than the time they submit their applications in March for sitting specific examination papers. Candidates will be informed in April whether their applications for exemption and examination are accepted, and also other details of the May examination.

Information about the HKSS examination, including the fees to be charged for individual papers, the application forms for registration as examination associates and as candidates for specific examination papers, and past papers and solutions for reference are available on the HKSS website at www.hkss.org.hk as from 3 October 2001. Registration as Examination Associates of the HKSS for the May 2002 examination will start on 3 October 2001 and end on 31 January 2002, while application for sitting individual examination papers will commence on 1 March 2002 and end on 31 March 2002.

Meanwhile, anybody wishing to make enquiries about the HKSS examination or to obtain application forms from the Examination Office of the HKSS, should contact the HKSS at the following address and numbers: