IPM, IFT and MUST to share UM’s old dormitories

The government’s Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES) revealed yesterday that the University of Macau (UM) will be temporarily leasing four of its buildings for use as dormitories to three universities, namely the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM), the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). Sou Chio Fai, GAES’s coordinator, indicated that the lease would start in the 2014/2015 school term and be in effect for one year. “The public schools are allowed free use of the buildings whilst the private school has paid to use it,” he said. IPM will use two buildings while IFT will use one building, according to Mr Sou. The remaining building will be reserved for MUST, paying a monthly rent of MOP949,000 for its use, which is facilitated with 990 hostel places. Sou estimated that the handover procedure could be completed in late August, and that the buildings will be available to move into next month. He pointed out that after the one-year lease, the old campus would still be reserved for higher education purposes, as the government had declared earlier.