Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U has warned that if Macao’s higher education institutions do not continue to improve their teaching quality, their advantages might be lost as the effect brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic subsides.
Ao Ieong was addressing the Legislative Assembly, where some lawmakers expressed concern about the future development of Macao’s higher education.
Ao Ieong acknowledged that the number of local students enrolled in local higher education institutions and those from outside Macao has increased due to Covid-19 travel restrictions in recent years so that students from Macao and mainland China “cannot go abroad for further studies”, Ao Ieong said, adding that this was part of the reason why they decided to stay in or come to Macao.
Ao Ieong said that this advantage might disappear as the pandemic “gradually passes” and that if local higher education institutions want to maintain their attractiveness, “they not only have to maintain and improve the quality of teaching, but also keep improving it,” Ao Ieong said.
Ao Ieong stressed that Macao’s higher education institutions must improve the quality of teaching while increasing enrollment. “One thing I have always insisted on is that the teaching quality achieved must be guaranteed and constantly improved, otherwise Macao’s higher education institutions will lose their competitiveness,” she said.
Ao Ieong also acknowledged that there is not enough space for higher education to further develop in Macao, saying she hoped that mainland China would “give more support to the development of higher education in Macao”.
Ao Ieong pointed out that the number of registered students increased by 45 per cent from over 34,000 in the 2018/2019 academic year to over 49,000 in the 2022/2023 academic year, while the proportion of postgraduate students increased from 25.5 per cent to 36.5 per cent over the same period.
Ao Ieong said that public universities must guarantee local students’ enrolment, using the University of Macau (UM) as an example, where half of its operational costs are borne by its own income, while the other half comes from public funds.
Regarding the official enrolment ratio at UM, Ao Ieong said that local students should account for 70 per cent, while non-local students should make up 30 per cent, adding that government funding for private universities will be based on the number of local students at the university, while research projects and equipment renewal will be counted separately.
Ao Ieong also said that the teaching and research standards of Macao’s higher education institutions were gradually gaining regional and international recognition as they continued to expand, with some scoring well in international university and subject rankings, noting that the UM and the Macau University of Science and Technology were both ranked in the 201-250 range in the world in the latest Times Higher Education 2023 rankings.
On a related subject, Ao Ieong noted that the government is trying to train more nursing staff for local care homes, as the local unemployment rate had been rising during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, however, Ao Ieong described the attempt as a “failure’, as local residents were not willing to work in such nursing services.
Ao Ieong said the government would continue to encourage students to study nursing-related professions by increasing the number of places in nursing schools and providing special grants, The Macau Post Daily reported.
