Education | Gov’t focuses on attracting more mainland students

Peter Stilwell (left), Alexis Tam (center) and Bishop José Lai (right) pictured during the visit to the campus

The government is hoping to increase the quotas of both public and private local universities to ensure that the enrollment of students from mainland China increases, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, has revealed.
Speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the University of Saint Joseph’s new campus yesterday, the Secretary acknowledged that Macau universities will face challenges of attracting a sufficient number of local students within the next few years.
“All universities will be facing major challenges because there won’t be enough students. So I’ve enrolled the help of the Ministry of Education in China, because Macau provides advantages to students, for instance for those interested in studying the Portuguese language,” he said.
The government is hoping to increase the current quota granted to public universities to accept mainland students. Mr Tam said the local government is still in talks with Beijing, but made assurances that they have received “good feedback” from them.
“The minister agreed with me. We can offer good quality education to mainland students. Very few people speak Portuguese in China and we have good conditions to teach the language here,” he stressed, adding that, “I want to turn Macau into a center for Portuguese language learning in the Asia-Pacific region.”
But in order to achieve such a goal, Mr Tam acknowledged that more universities would need to be allowed to bring on board mainland students, including USJ.
“I hope that in the coming school year we will be able to have more mainland students come in,” he added.
Yesterday, Mr Tam took part in a tour of the new USJ campus that is currently under development in Ilha Verde.
USJ’s rector Fr Peter Stilwell confirmed that the university is also looking to attract mainland students, and has submitted a proposal to the Macau government for permission to receive 60 students from China.

Construction works on USJ’s new campus

“We have asked for a small quota for how many applications from mainland students we can accept. We are aware that we need to handle mainland students’ enrollment a bit differently, since they speak Mandarin, they need to be socially integrated in our community and they need assistance with accommodation. So initially we asked for a quota of 60 students,” rector Stilwell revealed.
USJ’s rector acknowledged that the university has also been attracting students from other countries, as at least 30 percent of the student community is comprised of foreigners now.
The new campus’ construction works are set to be completed by the end of this year, but the dormitory building will only be completed by next March, said Peter Stilwell.
“There was a delay because at one point the Macau Foundation had shown an interest in accommodating their visiting professors [at the dormitory here]. But later on they found they had other plans, so we had to redraft the design project,” he explained.
Fr Stilwell said he’s still hopeful to get all of the academic buildings licensed by competent government departments by the year-end, but he does not guarantee that the new campus will be up and running for the next school year.
“We would be more than happy to kick off the next school year already on this campus, but nothing’s guaranteed. We all know that construction works can be complex (…)” he acknowledged.
According to Father Stilwell, the new campus’ budget remains set at around MOP520 million. The Macau diocese has contributed MOP40 million so far, while the government, via the Macau Foundation, has granted about MOP370 million in several installments.
Fr Stilwell acknowledged that the university has faced major challenges in recent years in regards to the campus’ construction. Delays, he said, were triggered by long licensing procedures as well as construction problems caused by strong rocks needing special drilling, among other reasons.
The rector confirmed to reporters his willingness to continue at the helm of USJ, although stated that, “such a decision is really up to my superiors. I will be reaching the end of my four-year tenure in May. However, I am available to continue. I think it wouldn’t be polite to initiate this project and then leave before it’s fully completed,” he stated.
The University of Saint Joseph currently has 1,300 students, but he’s hoping that with the new campus the university could accommodate about 2,200 students.