Peter Stilwell (2nd from right) and the CPTTM head, Shuen Ka Hung, shake hands
The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) and Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center (CPTTM) signed an agreement yesterday morning that seeks to deepen the cooperation between the two institutions that was initially established in 2003.
This time, the university aims to engender cooperation and support among the CPTTM House of Apparel Technology for its new Bachelor in Fashion Design program, to start in the 2016-2017 academic year under USJ’s Faculty of Creative Industries.
According to Álvaro Barbosa, Dean of Faculty of Creative Industries of USJ, the new bachelor program expects to see interest from 20 to 40 students upon its inauguration. This will be the first university level degree of this kind in Macau.
USJ also announced that the Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES) has already approved its proposal to establish a Master’s program in Communication and Media. This development is expected to commence in the next academic year.
This new program aims to provide opportunities for people working within the media and communications field who wish to further develop their skills. According to the Communication and Media Program Coordinator, José Manuel Simões, this new Master’s program will offer the tools to understand and evaluate the ongoing transformation of media culture and its impact on culture, politics and everyday life. It will take television as a starting point to map the conceptual, social and cultural challenges that come with digital, mobile and social media.
Both the new programs are expected to start at the new USJ Campus at Ilha Verde. The rector of the University, Peter Stilwell, said that he still expects the construction of the Campus to be concluded in May of this year.
“There were some delays, which were in fact, justified. But this is to be discussed further between the construction company and the owner, which is the Catholic Foundation [for Higher of Education]. For the time being, we are working on plan A, which includes the delivery of the building to us by the end of May,” said Peter Stilwell to TDM. He noted that “this plan means that we will start the next academic year with at least some of our programs already operating on the new campus.”
In case that does not happen, there is also a plan B prepared” the rector told TDM. In that case “we will receive [the new campus] whenever it is ready and we will transfer the courses across campuses with the minimum amount of disruption to students over the next academic year.”
new mandate of usj rector awaits confirmation
Peter Stilwell told TDM that the renewal of his mandate “is a process similar to the one used in the Catholic University [of Portugal], when it comes to choosing the new rector or rector’s office. It involves a range of people being consulted,” he said. “Then the decision rests with the chancellor,” added the rector, whose mandate ends in May.
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