The Macau SAR government is hoping to enroll more international students, with the total number of students at local universities projected to increase by 28% by 2025.
Yesterday, the Higher Education Bureau (DSES) held a press conference to officially launch the framework for the mid- and long-term development of Macau’s higher education sector, specifically for the period of 2021 to 2030.
The framework includes three goals and eight measures. Overall, the government aims to develop Macau into a platform for “excellent talented human resources,” for leading academic research and for the development of the Macau SAR.
The eight measures are: perfecting the education mechanism; expanding the scale of the number of students; promoting the sharing of resources among schools; protecting continuous improvement in higher education; training students’ comprehensive development; enhancing school staff’s proficiencies; promoting research development; and encouraging regional cooperation.
Regarding the expansion of the scale of the number of students, the local government expects to increase the number of university students from the current 39,000 to 50,000 by 2025.
The anticipated figure of 50,000 students is based on evaluation. “No matter if it is the teaching facilities or other aspects, the schools are completely capable of providing enough studying positions to reach the goal of 50,000,” Chang Kun Hong, acting director of DSES, said.
Over the past few years, Macau has been producing approximately 4,000 high school graduates annually, around half of whom chose to study at local universities.
DSES acknowledged that due to the decreasing birthrate in Macau, which has caused a decrease in the number of high school graduates in turn, it has become increasingly difficult for local universities to enroll students.
The authority hopes to attract more students from Southeast Asian countries and Europe, as well as students from countries linked by China’s Belt and Road initiative.
Currently, students from over 60 regions and countries are studying in Macau.
“Most of the [non-local] students come from mainland China. Besides enrolling local students, we also hope that we can attract more non-local students, including mainland students. Enrolling foreign students into Macau [universities] is a long-term goal,” Chang said.
In addition to international students, DSES also wishes for local universities to hire more international teaching staff.
“At the current stage, the percentage of international lecturers in [local] schools is different. We hope schools can hire high quality, well-known scholars from all over the world to provide educational services,” said Chang, who also said that Macau is still lagging behind in the ratio of students to lecturers when compared with international standards.
“We hope to adjust the ratio between teachers and students to 1:15,” said Chang.
Patriotic education
not for international
students
DSES has made it explicit that patriotic education is not made for the international students.
According to the higher education development framework, students are required to learn about the Constitutional Law and Macau’s Basic Law. The government hopes to enhance students’ love of the state and Macau.
“The sentiment of loving the country mainly targets local students and mainland students. Regarding foreign students, there is a necessity for them to learn about the country’s Constitutional Law and the Basic Law,” Chang explained.
At present, Macau provides over 100 courses at university level, including elective courses and required courses. Constitutional Law and Macau’s Basic Law are required courses.
“I always think that, as citizens of China and as students from China, we must have passion and love for the country, and we must understand the country’s development. In regard to foreign students, we are not forcing them, and we will not force them to go through education to love China. They must adapt to the law here if they live here and they need to learn about Macau’s Basic Law and the country’s Constitutional Law,” said Chang.
Speaking about academic freedom, Chang claims that the government will not impose any restrictions to suppress academic freedom.
“It is explicitly included in the law that universities have academic freedom,” Chang said, adding that teaching staff at universities have the freedom to choose what to discuss on whatever occasion. “Discussing inappropriate topics – not necessarily political ones – under an inappropriate situation or discussing topics that makes the students [uncomfortable] are different from academic freedom,” the official said.
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