UM’s vast new campus runs ‘similarly to a city’

Rui Martins

After one year of operation of the University of Macau (UM)’s new Hengqin campus, Rui Martins rejects allegations that students and staff are more isolated in their new surroundings.
“You can’t even notice that you are outside Macau,” UM’s Vice-Rector (Research) says, rebutting accusations made by some on campus, who claim that the transport network and infrastructure remain insufficient.
Rui Martins says the fact that residents visit on weekends to enjoy the parks demonstrates that the space belongs to the city. He argues that the campus “became a touristic attraction.” The university also organizes visits to the site and claims that 17,000 visitors took part in those tours during the previous year, 5,000 of them from outside Macau.
Designed by Chinese architect He Jingtang (who designed the emblematic Chinese pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, along with several universities in China), the campus was deemed similar to others designed by the architect, namely Nanjing Audit University (NAU).
According to Rui Martins, “It’s only natural that some similarities should appear,” bearing in mind the fact that He Jingtang has designed several campuses. However, the vice-rector says that the project features characteristics related to Macau and its history. He gives as examples the use of typical South China Lin’an roofs, European arches and Portuguese paving. “We [UM] managed to have the architect adapt his design, and I believe that the final result is suitable,” Rui Martins says.
Twenty times bigger than the UM Taipa campus, the Hengqin infrastructure is expected to serve up to 13,000 students by 2021, almost 3,000 more than it hosts presently.
Rui Martins remarks that the campus is working similarly to a city that is growing gradually and steadily. The 10,000-student mark should be achieved in the 2016/2017 school year.
With the vast new campus, UM has entered a new era of residential college education. Presently, eight residential colleges accommodate 3,500 students, and four new colleges are expected to open.
Among those completing degrees at the university, 80 percent of the students are locals, and the rest are largely from mainland China. With the number of local students decreasing, UM expects to attract overseas students in regions and countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, India and others.
The campus also hosts 360 scholars (out of a total of 557) and has the capacity to host 800. Rui Martins states that the board of professors is “increasingly qualified,” although he admits that the salary cap imposed by the civil servants’ regime hinders the hiring of reputed scholars.
According to present rules, a professor can earn a maximum of MOP86,900, a value that can only be surpassed in exceptional cases and after approval of the university board. According to Rui Martins, that may change this year after a new university regiment is approved.  MDT/Lusa

Martins: Academic freedom upheld

Rui Martins says that the UM is a space where academic freedom is upheld, denying the occurrence of episodes where freedom of speech was said to have been violated. “Concerning academic freedom, we are free to decide what we want. There isn’t any limit,” he says. The vice-rector commented on Bill Chou’s case, stating that he is not sure the case was related to politics. According to him, during disciplinary proceedings Chou kept his research projects and was supported by the university in traveling to conferences.
“We have hundreds of projects being undertaken here. Since I’ve been at UM, we have had very sensitive projects, inclusive of political issues related to mainland China. It never happened that a project was rejected because of political issues,” said Martins.
However, Lusa news agency points out that, in October 2014, Bill Chou revealed several documents relating to the disciplinary proceedings to which he was subject. Among that documentation was an e-mail exchange with the chief of his department, Jiangwei Wang, where Chou was informed that UM wouldn’t sponsor his proposed seminar about the Xinjiang region and Uigur nationalism.
According to versions of the e-mails shown to the press, Jiangwei Wang stated that the refusal related to the “sensitivity” of the issue and the fact that a Taiwanese scholar was invited.