The University of Macau (UM) was founded in 1981 as a private institution by the name of University of East Asia. Through over two decades’ development, it has become a leading university in Macao. UM offers around 100 bachelor’s, master’s and PhD programmes with English being the main medium of instruction through various academic units, including the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, and Honours College. UM currently has over 9,000 students and over 500 teaching staff. It is dedicated to producing outstanding graduates, becoming a world-class university, and pursuing its education values including strengthening quality undergraduate education, attracting internationally renowned academics, promoting research excellence and innovation, and constructing an efficient and eco-friendly campus.

In order to strengthen quality undergraduate education UM will adopt the following initiatives: (1) Implementing a comprehensive range of reforms, optimizing undergraduate programmes, and incorporating global perspective into all undergraduate programmes; (2) Increasing general knowledge-related courses to achieve the objective of whole-person education; (3) Launching undergraduate research programmes to develop research talents; (4) Setting up the Honours College and devote huge resources to develop future leaders with global perspective; (5) Strengthening career counseling for students to fully prepare them for future career planning.

UM adopts international governance and management systems and recruits outstanding teaching staff from around the world in order to create a multilingual learning environment for students. It also adopts the international review system to evaluate teaching staff’s abilities and reward outstanding teachers in order to build a strong faculty team and enhance teaching and research quality. Meanwhile it will tap its full potential by innovation and establish numerous environmental management schemes in hopes of building an efficient and eco-friendly campus.

In recent years, UM has made great strides in scientific research and teaching with internationally-recognized achievements. For example, it was awarded Macao’s first US patent in hi-tech micro-electronics. Its achievement in traditional Chinese medicine was granted the national invention patent. Former Dean of Faculty of Law Prof. Zeng Lingliang was among the first to win the title of “Master of Legal Science in Contemporary China”. Prof. Tang Kaijian from the Department of History received the French Knighthood Honor. In addition to these achievements, UM also strives to strengthen links with various domestic and overseas organizations by conferring Honorary Professorship or Honorary Doctoral Degree upon world-renowned individuals with outstanding achievements, such as the former US President George Herbert Walker Bush, in hopes of enhancing its international reputation.

2009 marks an important milestone for UM since its foundation, because it is in this year that the Central Government decided to reserve a piece of land on Hengqin Island covering approximately one square kilometer for Macao for the construction of UM new campus, it is also in this year that the bill proposing authorizing Macao SAR to exercise jurisdiction over UM new campus site on Hengqin Island was adopted at the 9th session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People’s Congress. This fully demonstrates the Central Government’s support for, and recognition of, UM. With a new campus, UM will have greater space to pursue its education values to the fullest extent. In the new campus, the number of faculties will increase to around eight, and the residential college system will be adopted to enable whole-person education. There will be three open scientific research bases to promote the exchange and cooperation between UM and other universities in Macao, Guangdong and China in the research and development of new technologies with the aim of advancing the development of the innovative technology industry in Macao and China. The new campus will become not just a new landmark for Macao, but also, more importantly, a cradle for students’ growth and scientific development.

There is no end to tapping the University’s potential and fulfilling its mission. UM will seize the historic opportunity to produce outstanding graduates with professional skills, extensive knowledge and high integrity for the society through high-quality whole-person undergraduate education. It will also strive to become a world-class university with excellence in both teaching and research, thereby propelling Macao’s higher education to new heights.