In an interview broadcast last Sunday by TDM, scholar Hao Zhidong, who is leaving the University of Macau (UM), claimed that academic freedom is shrinking in Macau and mentioned that the UM has demanded that its staff report on private visits to Taiwan.
Newspaper Hoje Macau reported yesterday that the new rules were causing a stir within the institution.
“When they get into one’s private life, including people who do not engage in any political action, then this is no longer the second system. There is something very wrong in all this,” a UM professor, who requested to remain unidentified, told the Portuguese-language newspaper.
The Times attempted to obtain a comment from the University Communications Office but there was no response by press time.
According to claims reported by the press this week, UM teachers and other staff members who wish to travel to Taiwan on private trips are obliged to report and justify such trips to the institution’s board of directors, and must also issue a detailed report on activities undertaken during their visit.
Furthermore, Hoje Macau reported that these requirements were not initiated by the UM, but had been imposed on it by an undisclosed government department.
The purpose for which the rules were created is also unclear. RM
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