The University of Macau (UM) has justified hiking tuition fees by up to 40% by explaining that the university took into consideration tuition fees in Hong Kong for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
A dispatch in the March 2021 Official Gazette indicates that the new tuition fees for undergraduate local students in four-year courses is MOP37,500 per year, up from MOP30,000. Overseas students, including those from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, will see a staggering tuition fee hike of 40%. From the next academic year, they will be required to pay MOP104,200 per year – totaling up to MOP521,000 for those in five-year degree programs.
In a statement, UM said that it used Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a benchmark for the new tuition fees.
The tuition fees for local students in undergraduate programs at Hong Kong Polytechnic University are MOP43,400 per year, while those for its master’s degree programs are MOP143,700.
“The tuition fees for local students at UM will still be much lower than those of Hong Kong after the adjustment. In addition, the tuition adjustment will only apply to new admissions and will not affect existing students,” the university explained.
Previously, UM rector Yonghua Song expressed his views on the hike, saying that the increase looks “greater [as a percentage] because the baseline was too low.”
UM said that it is “committed to ensuring that budget adjustments will not affect student scholarships, fellowships, or teaching expenses after the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.”
In addition to reserving funds for scholarships for local undergraduate students in the 2022/2023 academic year, the university is still soliciting support from the community to provide scholarships.
Recapping the scholarships awarded in the 2021/2022 academic year, the university said that it awarded a total of MOP4 million in scholarships, sponsored by prominent members of the community, to more than 400 students.
According to its data, the university received 28 fellowship applications and 24 were approved.
Last year, 167 applications for instalment payment of tuition were received and all were approved.
In a bid to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, the university has reduced tuition fees two years in a row, including a one-time fee remission of MOP5,200 for first-year local undergraduate students or local undergraduate students resuming their studies in the 2021/2022 academic year, and a one-time tuition fee remission of MOP6,000 for students in the same category for the 2022/2023 academic year.
