UMacau is building up a strong talent pool of established academics from overseas

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To produce top students and create a scholarly learning environment, university faculties are always on the lookout for renowned academics, who are skilled at teaching and committed to research. “It is important that faculty members are knowledgeable in their own specific subjects and also passionate about transmitting their knowledge and research results to students, thereby helping them compete globally,” says Professor Honggang Jin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, summarising the significant role of the University of Macau’s academics.   

Facing a shortage of academic staff locally, the University turns to established scholars and academics from overseas to strengthen its talent pool. However, Professor Jin maintains that it is equally vital to establish a mentoring system where established scholars and senior faculty members can guide junior staff in research and professional development.

“My years of experience teaching at US universities tell me that a mentoring system can be very powerful in helping a university produce research results and a great number of first class students,” Professor Jin says. “By being engaged with senior faculty members in collaborative research, teaching-related activities and services, junior staff will see their professional standards rise.”

As a distinguished scholar in second language acquisition and multilingualism, Professor Jin sees an increasingly important role for the humanities and social sciences in science and technology research. “Nowadays a lot of research areas are interconnected. If you want to get to a cutting-edge position, you need to bring in knowledge from other disciplines to perfect your own, and recognise that humanities are deeply connected to science, technology, social sciences and many other related fields,” she says.

This is also the case in commercial research, with companies such as Coca-Cola looking at intercultural issues to help them develop improved systems and strategies that interact with people, she adds.