Education | IPM Taipa campus expected to open by 2020

Alexis Tam (center) pictured during a visit to the future center

The Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) is expected to open its new Taipa campus by 2020, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, announced yesterday during a visit to the unfinished campus.

Located at R. do Delegado, in the area of Chun Su Mei, the future IPM Taipa campus will be used as a seniors’ academy.

The new campus occupies an area of 1,800 square meters and will offer musical and multifunctional classes, among others, as well as providing leisure space.

“It should be a nice place [with which] to expand our seniors’ academy,” said Im Sio Kei, the recently appointed president of IPM.

The construction of the campus is estimated to take approximately one year. Im hopes that the facilities will be ready in 2019. However, Im indicated that the project’s completion might only occur in 2020 if special circumstances arise during production.

Once the new campus is put into operation, the old seniors’ academy, which is currently located at the IPM headquarters, will continue to be utilized.

“[The new campus] is mainly for expanding the school’s quota for seniors,” stated Im, according to whom IPM is planning to welcome 170 more senior students each year after the new campus is ready.

IPM’s current seniors’ academy has approximately 500 students.

“Each year, [the seniors academy] will receive 170 more students. After three years, there will be approximately 500 more students,” said Im. To respond to the increasing number of students, IPM will also have more teachers serving the academy, he added.

In addition, the government has considered finding additional spare land to build facilities for the seniors’ academy.

“In the future, we will try to find more spare land to build teaching facilities and classrooms so that IPM can expand the seniors’ academy even further,” said Tam. “[The government] already has a plan and [the government] will introduce the plan to the public at the right time.”

According to the secretary, the government is in the middle of searching for land for its plan.

“We are rather optimistic regarding being able to let IPM expand its campus, regarding younger students being able to go to the new areas to attend classes, and regarding the downtown IPM being saved for seniors because it’s convenient and the transportation around is rather good,” said Tam, who revealed that the government is planning to set up such facilities at the old campus of the University of Macau.