The University of Macau aims to globalise and diversify its growing campus
[Sponsored Article] With financial strength, appropriate strategies, effective implementation of such strategies, and strong policies for recruiting, retaining and developing staff, the University of Macau (UMacau) can go far and will be able to compete in a globalised environment.
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With financial strength, appropriate strategies, effective implementation of such strategies, and strong policies for recruiting, retaining and developing staff, the University of Macau (UMacau) can go far and will be able to compete in a globalised environment, according to Professor Dahsuan Feng, Director of the Global Affairs and Special Advisor to the Rector.
Trained as a physicist with years of experience working at US universities and the US government leading science and technology projects, Professor Feng, as an academic strategist, is on a mission to raise the University’s global visibility and standing.
“The current student demographics tell us that we need to diversify our student mix in our undergraduate and graduate programmes and recruit the best global students,” Professor Feng says.
Currently 80 per cent of the student population are local Macau residents. “We don’t do it blindly. We hope to bring in students with different cultures and different ways of thinking to create an impact, and broaden the intellectual bandwidth of our local students,” he explains.
One group being targeted is ethnic Chinese students in Malaysia who are proficient in English, Chinese and Malay, who perform well in technology and science, and understand Chinese, English and Malay cultures.
UMacau is also looking to broaden its overseas student intake for its postgraduate programmes from the world’s second-largest nation in population terms, India.
Addressing the key role of UMacau as a platform to connect Asia and China to the rest of the world, Professor Feng stresses the importance of strengthening relations and forging collaboration with universities and academic institutes in other continents especially in Europe, with which Macau has strong and deep ties. It is always good to learn a thing or two from top universities. In early 2015, he teamed up with the Rector to visit several top institutes in Israel. “We want to understand how such a small country under all kinds of threats can become a haven of science and technology with eight world class universities. Perhaps they could be the model UMacau can build on for Macau,” says Professor Feng with excitement.