Lawmaker Lei Chan U
Lawmaker Lei Chan U has asked the government to ensure that the city’s tertiary education is of high quality before promoting the sector internationally.
The request comes after the Chief Executive (CE) Ho Iat Seng announced in a Q&A session at the Legislative Assembly (AL) on August 10 that the tertiary education sector is aiming to gradually develop in the direction of marketization.
In the 2022 Policy Address, the government mentioned that public tertiary education institutions had actively extended the scope of student enrolment to gradually reduce the allocation of government funding.
This comes as universities have significantly increased tuition fees, yet also increased the enrolment rate.
In an interpellation, Lei pointed out that the development of the marketization for tertiary education may cause some issues as the teaching quality may not be sufficient.
Thus, he called on the government to improve the relevant policies to ensure the process of development of marketization for tertiary education is successful.
In reply, director Kong Chi Meng of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau said (DSEDJ) that in seeking to ensure the priority of local students and the quality of education in Macau’s higher tertiary schools, the government will keep encouraging higher tertiary schools to “build a perfect and market-oriented operating mechanism.”
He also explained that the government encourages universities to develop characteristic courses and career-oriented courses, and promote the development of academic, industrial and research sectors, improving the efficiency and flexibility of the financial and personnel systems of public institutions in a bid to promote higher education in the direction of marketization development.
Furthermore, the personnel of the three local public higher tertiary schools are not included in the number of civil servants. In response to the changes in the number of students and the development of academic and scientific research, all kinds of professionals will be deployed to improve the sector’s competitiveness as it seeks to recruit outstanding personnel.
The director also recalled that the University of Macau and Macau University of Science and Technology are ranked within the Top 300 in World University Rankings of Times Higher Education (THE). Further, there are eight bachelor’s degree programs of the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies that obtained a ‘TedQual’ recognition from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) so far.
According to the restrictions of the tertiary education quality assessment system, the 10 local tertiary schools will have completed their first school quality certification by the end of 2025.
At present, two of them have been completed, and the DSEDJ will be prompting the remaining schools to complete the school quality certification. Staff Reporter
