Source: Macao daily


Great Buildings

Advanced Facilities and Renowned Scholars

Visit the University of Macau’s (UM) current campus, and you would constantly hear this comment, ‘What a great campus!’ Yes, indeed. What a great campus! But it is a ‘great’ campus not just because of the size. More importantly, it’s because it has ‘great buildings’ and ‘great professors’ and is dedicated to creating graduates with ‘great knowledge’ and ‘great character’.  


Perhaps few people can appreciate the benefits of a much bigger campus more than faculty members like Dr Wei Jinchao from the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences. Dr Wei was among the first UM members to move to the new campus in 2014. When he stood at the 1-square-kilometre campus that is about 20 times the size of the old one, looking at the three shiny glass-fronted research buildings in front of him, he was completely dazzled. The research buildings, which Wei describes as having a very reasonable overall layout, provides two to three times more research space than the old campus, with six research centres and one testing service platform. 


Wei specialises in Chinese medicine quality control and new testing methods for food safety. For years, Wei and his colleagues dreamed of buying a high resolution mass spectrometer which could directly detect trace toxic substances in food, such as fungal toxins and heavy metals, but which would occupy ten square metres. Moving to the new campus made their dream come true. The acquisition of the high resolution mass spectrometer and other kinds of new equipment has accelerated research progress and created favourable conditions for the researchers to explore new frontiers. Wei says that UM is now not only on a par with first-rate universities in mainland China and neighbouring regions in terms of research facilities; it is also well on the way to joining the ranks of advanced overseas universities. 


Research Equipment Reaching International Standards

The new research facilities and the better research environment have created greater success in research and higher morale among the researchers. According to statistics from the Web of Science, the number of published papers by UM members jumped from 240 in 2011 to more than 1,200 in 2016, with citation frequency in 2016 exceeding 11,000, compared to only 1,800 in 2011. 


Many people believe that a library is the ‘soul’ of a university. The lakeside UM library houses 1 million physical books and a large number of electronic databases, which are the most liked resources for faculty members and students. Keeping abreast of the latest developments in different fields is of paramount importance to a university’s teaching and research activities. Wei says the university’s generous investment in databases speaks for itself. ‘I have seen many international exchange students marvelling at or expressing envy over our well-stocked library,’ says Wei. ‘They mainly visit the library to search for literature, and they seldom leave empty-handed.’


The green, picturesque campus is not just a great place for the students to learn and enrich their minds. The university’s emphasis on physical education and the availability of various sports facilities also make it a great place to exercise and build a stronger body. Sports facilities currently available to students include an Olympic-size swimming pool, football fields, squash courts, an archery range, rock climbing walls, a gym room, and a badminton hall. Students love these facilities, saying they are both ‘cheap and convenient’. Eric Chan is a doctoral student from the Department of Electromechanical Engineering. In 2014, he became a lab technician at the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering. Having already spent 12 years at UM, he doesn’t seem to get tired at all. Indeed, he hopes to continue to stay at UM after graduation as a staff member. What is it about UM that has earned Chan’s staunch loyalty? He says UM is where he discovered his interests and academic strengths, played football with his best buddies, gave performance with his like-minded band members in the University Hall or by the lake, and worked towards a same goal with fellow dreamers. When a place is associated with so many beautiful memories, how can one say goodbye so easily? 


Quality Campus Environment Helps Students Develop Talents

People only want to stay where they feel at home. That’s why the residential colleges at UM try their best to create a home-like feel. Ginnie Liang, a first-year student from the Department of Communication, is a member of Shiu Pong College. She spends more than five days a week in the college, and she enjoys every minute of it. ‘There are all kinds of facilities in the college, the idea behind the design is to create a living and learning community,’ she says. ‘The college also organise different activities every day. Students are encouraged to organise and participate in these activities to discover their interests and potential.’


Ginnie also loves the meals prepared by the college. ‘The dining hall makes a point of serving new dishes. Those bitten by the cooking bug can cook in the pantry, which is available on every floor. There is a microwave oven and a refrigerator in every pantry. ’


There is a gym in the college, which Ginnie visits regularly. ‘There are treadmills, a table tennis table, and a yoga area in the gym. After finishing my yoga session, I would immediately go back to my room to take a shower, and then I would feel awesome,’ she says. Another place Ginnie frequents is the music room in the college. She loves to practice piano here as a way to de-stress. The band room next to the music room is very popular with college bands. There is also a multi-purpose room, which is a good place for lectures and other activities. The room is equipped with a projector and a DVD player, available for use by the students at any time. 


Environment can either make or break a person. To help students achieve well-rounded development, a university must first create an environment that is conducive to that purpose. Apart from the facilities in the residential colleges, the Student Activity Centre also has some rooms for student organisations to hold meetings or practice sessions. Many novel and creative ideas were born here! UM works hard to create a good environment on campus so that students can learn and grow together, develop their talents, and make beautiful memories of their years as college students. 


Great Professors

Inspiring Teachers

The renowned educator Mei Yiqi, who is hailed by Tinghua’s faculty and students as ‘Tsinghua’s president forever’, once said: ‘The greatness of a university lies not in great buildings, but in great professors.’ Developing a first-rate faculty team has long been identified as the first priority at the University of Macau (UM). In recent years, the university has internationally recruited many world-renowned scholars who are leaders in their respective areas of expertise. These include Chair Professor Chuxia Deng, a leading Chinese American scientist in the field of life sciences; Chair Professor Yang Yi, a leading authority in Chinese literary studies; and Distinguished Professor Mao Haijian, a veteran historian. In addition to recruiting masters in various fields, UM also regularly invites academic titans, including Nobel laureates, to give lectures on campus. 


When it comes to a university’s academic strength, numbers speak louder than words. The number of chair professors at UM (‘chair professor’ is an academic title a university confers to full-time faculty members, which denotes a very high academic status) jumped from 1 in 2008 to the current 21. In terms of the international mix in the faculty team, UM now has a faculty team comprised of nearly 600 people. 80 per cent of them are from overseas and hold a PhD degree. Many graduated from world-renowned universities such as Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford. In terms of honorary doctors, UM does not lack ‘A-list masters’ to give lectures on campus. These include Nobel laureates Chen-Ning Franklin Yang, Mo Yan, and Robert Mundell. The international faculty team has without a doubt played a positive role in promoting international collaboration in scientific research, instilling a global mindset in the students, and fostering international mobility among the graduates.  


The real purpose of a university is to educate students. But even the world’s best professors wouldn’t inspire the students to work hard if they were not willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly to education. Only when the students feel that the university and the professors genuinely care, will they go all out. Assistant Professor Chan Chi Hang from the Faculty of Science and Technology was born and raised in Macao. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Washington State University in the United States, he returned to Macao for internship, during which time he met Prof Ben U from UM’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and strengthened his determination to pursue further studies at UM. During his postgraduate studies at UM, he was greatly influenced by his supervisor Prof U, Vice Rector Rui Martins, and several other faculty members because of their work attitudes and passion for research. ‘My professors are very willing to spend time on the students,’ he says. ‘Every time a student wants to submit a paper, they would spend a lot of time discussing with the student and helping to revise the paper, sometimes working throughout the night, in order to improve the quality of the paper and do justice to the data.’ The hard work of the professors and students has paid off. Take this year for example. UM’s microelectronics team presented a total of six conference papers. ‘We are ranked among the top two in Asia, and we can even hold a candle to US universities, because only at the best of the best universities in the US can you see an assembly of faculty members with such a strong research capability.’

 

Fu Yinchang, a doctoral student of Chinese literature, studies with Prof Yang Yi, a leading authority on Chinese literary studies who is considered as one of China’s best literary historians in the 21st century and one of the most creative and influential scholars in contemporary China. ‘What I have learned the most from Prof Yang are his meticulous attitude towards academic research and his way of thinking,’ says Fu. ‘He often tells me that nothing is difficult to the person with the right attitude. With the right attitude, one can accomplish anything.’


Faraz Mohammadali Shaikh, a doctoral student from the Faculty of Science and Technology, specialises in molecular studies. After studying at UM for one year, he went to Oxford University, where he participated in a drug design project against Ebola for four months. Comparing his experience at UM with that at Oxford, he says that Oxford is without a doubt a top university in terms of research history and expertise, but he admires UM more for its complete support for the students. He is grateful to his supervisor Prof Siu Weng In for sharing her research methods and knowledge and for providing much valuable advice, saying that without the help of Prof Siu, he wouldn’t have successfully filtered out the two compounds from the 9 million compounds screened at Oxford. 


Inspiring Teachers
The real purpose of scientific research is to improve people’s lives. It is tempting to assume that a small city like Macao, with a mere population of 600,000, would not be able to fulfill this mission. But the truth is UM’s research achievements are the pride of Macao, with constant new discoveries and innovations in various fields such as biomedical sciences and contagious diseases. These new research findings have benefited society and promoted scientific enquiry in the fields of microelectronics, energy and environment, and electronic information. 

UM faculty members and students have repeatedly created new records in terms of the number and citation frequency of published papers. According to statistics from the Web of Science, the number of published papers by UM members jumped from 240 in 2011 to more than 1,200 in 2016, with citation frequency in 2016 exceeding 11,000, compared to only 1,800 in 2011. In some areas, such as microelectronics, traditional Chinese medicine, and the Internet of Things, UM is now ranked among the top in the Greater China region in terms of the number of papers published at important international conferences and in key journals. 

Many people might ask: What exactly has UM achieved in scientific research? To answer that question, one need look no further than the past two years. For example, early this year, a research project on using DNA barcoding for identifying the species of medicinal plants, which was conducted by UM’s Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine in collaboration with mainland institutions, received a second prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.

The latest research achievement is a groundbreaking technology developed by the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences that enables storage of stem cells at room temperature for a minimum of seven days without the loss of viability and biological activities. This new technology does not rely on the traditional cryopreservation method which requires costly equipment and tedious cryopreservation procedures, thus enabling cell storage and transport under ambient conditions.


Great Knowledge 
Creating Graduates with Great Knowledge and Great Character
Inside the classroom, the University of Macau (UM) helps students acquire specialised knowledge with quality programmes that have received recognition or accreditation. Outside the classroom, the university organises various kinds of activities to broaden students’ minds, help them learn from others, and explore more possibilities in life. 

UM aspires to become a world-class university. Providing high-quality education is the first step to achieving this goal. Currently, UM offers over 130 degree programmes, some of which have received international recognition or accreditation. For example, the bachelor’s degree programme in computer sciences has been accredited under the Seoul Accord. Three bachelor’s degree programmes, in civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and electromechanical engineering, respectively, have been recognised under the Washington Accord. The bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in accounting have been accredited by both CPA Australia and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Studying professionally accredited or internationally recognised programmes can help students lay a solid foundation in their chosen areas of study. UM has also launched a ‘3+2’ programme and a ‘4+X’ programme. Participants in the ‘3+2’ programme will receive a bachelor’s degree from UM and a master’s degree from a top university overseas upon completion of the programme. The ‘4+X’ programme reserves quota for admission to top universities. 

‘UM offers superb value for money.’
Guo Xinqi, a Class of 2017 graduate from the Department of Psychology, has been accepted by the world-renowned University of California, San Diego (UCSD), for a combined master’s and doctoral programme in cognitive psychology, with tuition fee exemption. Guo credits being accepted by the UCSD to her four years of solid training at UM. In her words, UM is a university that offers ‘superb value for money’. She says that UM provides an international platform, with excellent professors and quality teaching and research. Under the guidance of her professor, she joined a research team and gained many opportunities to conduct studies in psychology. She was also an active participant in student organisations and university teams. Joining the debate team improved her presentation skills, logical reasoning skills, and team spirit. She was a member of the Dormitory Student Association and was responsible for helping exchange students from around the globe to integrate into the life on campus. In the process of helping others, she also helped herself because she got to practice her English.  

HC Creates Future Leaders for Society
In addition to providing quality education to equip students with specialised knowledge, UM also attaches importance to helping students develop comprehensive abilities. The more than 100 student organisations on campus help students discover their interests. UM also followed the practice of world-renowned universities and founded Macao’s first Honours College (HC), investing heavily to train outstanding students to become future leaders of society. 

Miki Lei is a student from the Faculty of Business Administration, majoring in the Bachelor of Science in International Integrated Resort Management programme. She was admitted in the 2015/2016 academic year on the Grand Lotus Scholarship, which is the highest honour conferred by UM to new undergraduates. The recipients of this scholarship receive MOP 30,000 each year in addition to tuition fee exemption. After she entered the HC during her sophomore year, her life became busy yet fulfilling, which confirmed her belief that choosing UM was the right decision. The programmes offered by the HC are designed to help students discover their potential and develop leadership skills and a global mindset. ‘A leadership course I attended recently was focused on serving others. Through the course, I learned how to better understand other people’s needs as well as my own,’ she says. ‘We also have opportunities to participate in various research projects, through which we can meet experts and leaders in different fields. We also try to give back to society through community service projects.’ Envisioning the prospect of studying at a first-rate American university for one semester next year, she can barely contain her excitement. ‘I can’t wait to study with top students from around the world. It will be a very special experience for me,’ she says. 


Over 60 Universities for Exchange Programmes
Experiencing Different Cultures and Ways of Life
UM has established partnerships with 60 universities in the world. Students can choose a destination from these universities for exchange programme, through which they can meet international friends, broaden their horizons, and experience different cultures and ways of life. 

Exchange Programmes Broaden Horizons
Guo Xinqi studied at the University of Rochester in the US for one semester during her third year. She left such a good impression on the professor she worked with that the professor ended up writing a recommendation letter for her. She believes that recommendation letter was an important contributor to her being accepted by the UCSD. She adds that the summer exchange trip to Finland also benefited her greatly. With a minor in economics, she learned how to look at the economic growth in China from a different perspective. ‘We had heated discussions in class. It felt very good to hear everyone express their opinions,’ she says.  

Looking Beyond Macao
Karie U, who majors in global business management, went on an exchange at Rennes School of Business in the second semester of her third year. She describes that experience as a ‘cultural journey’. Half of her classmates were French. The rest came from all over the world, including countries that are not commonly represented in an international student body, such as Mexico, Egypt, and Turkey. ‘We had parties with students from Lebanon, and we talked to students from Egypt. These were eye-opening experiences for me,’ she says. She advises current students at UM to make the most of the exchange programmes. ‘Don’t just confine yourself to Macao; there is a big world out there,’ she says. 

Numerous Internship Opportunities
Knowledge is not truly internalised until it is tested through practice. That is why UM creates many internship opportunities for students. Ivonne from the Department of Communication joined the UM Reporter Programme in her first year. Her job responsibility included writing, photography, editing, lighting, and recording. Her most unforgettable experience was interviewing a family in Inner Mongolia. During the summer holiday before she started her fourth year, she worked in a local media organisation as an intern. Every day she did what she had learned from the UM Reporter Programme, and progressed quickly.


Great Character
RC System’s Positive Effect on Character Development 
The University of Macau (UM) implements a ‘4-in-1’ model of education that consists of discipline-specific education, general education, research and internship education, and community and peer education, in an attempt to provide a multifaceted education to the students. The university hopes to produce outstanding graduates with expertise in their chosen areas of study as well as general knowledge across different disciplines. The university also hopes that the residential college system can have a positive effect on the students’ character development so they can better serve society.  

UM has the largest and the most complete residential college (RC) system in Asia. Currently, there are ten RCs at UM. Each RC is a small, close-knit community where students of different ages, nationalities, and majors live, learn, and grow together. A survey has found that students who live in the RCs do better in civic duty, leadership skills, community service, cultural engagement, art appreciation, mood management, physical fitness, healthy living, and peer relationship. This shows that the RC system plays a positive role in helping students develop good character traits and values. 

Learning Social Etiquette via High Table Dinner
Joan Wong, a second-year student of the five-year bachelor of law programme (conducted in Chinese and Portuguese), is a member of Choi Kai Yau College. He says he is a big fan of his college. Compared to his experiences in Portugal where he also lived in the dormitory, his life in the RC is very different. The RC organises various kinds of activities, including visits to homes for the elderly and animal welfare organisations, to teach students to care about people and the world. Those who want to travel farther to broaden their horizons can join the cultural exchange trips to Beijing, Malacca, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. The recent workshop on African drum aimed to stimulate students’ interest in music, while the workshop on gompa taught students to nurture their body and mind in a fast-paced world. 

Wong mentions the High Table Dinner which is held in the RC regularly. He says it provides a good opportunity to learn social etiquette, such as how to smile, how to shake hands, how to greet people, how to dress for the occasion, and how to observe table manners. ‘Learning to behave appropriately will give you bonus points when dealing with other people,’ Wong says. ‘Some RCs invite famous opera singers and bands to perform at the High Table Dinner, which makes the event a feast for both the stomach and the ear.’

Like a Big Family
Each RC is like a big family, with RC fellows, floor assistants (which are usually served by postgraduates), and junior- or senior-year undergraduate students taking care of all the ‘family members’, who are from different departments and countries. Darren Leong from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is the president of the Presidium of the General Assembly of the Students’ Union. He moved into the RC in his first year. Over the past three years, he has had roommates from different departments. Talking to students from different academic backgrounds open up new worlds for each other. The two students who share the same bathroom with Wong are from Czetch Republic and France. Sometimes they would play guitar or cook together. In the process, Leong gets to practice Portuguese or French. 

UM’s strategies for producing graduates with ‘great knowledge’ and ‘great character’ have been very successful. Graduates with profound knowledge, refined behaviour, a modest attitude, and a sense of humour are bound to be liked by society.

Many UM Alumni Successfully Start Their Own Businesses
An important indicator of how well a university fulfils its educational objective is how well its graduates do after graduation. Over the past three years, UM graduates have achieved satisfactory results in further studies and employment. 90 per cent of graduates found a job within three months of graduation. Those who decided to pursue further studies were also very popular with renowned graduate schools. There are also many UM alumni who have successfully started their own businesses. 

According to the latest further studies and employment survey conducted by UM, 91.1 per cent of the Class of 2016 graduates with a bachelor’s degree either found a job or were accepted for graduate studies. Most of the students received job offers before graduation. 90 per cent of the students surveyed reported that they found a job within three months of graduation, with a median monthly income of MOP 14,340. 

Between 2013 and 2016, more than 500 UM graduates chose to pursue further studies. Some of them were accepted by universities ranked among the top 30 in the world, including the University of Cambridge, University College London, Nanyang Technological University, Cornell University, Columbia University, the Australian National University, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

Starting a Business in Angola 
Some UM graduates have successfully started their own businesses. Antόnio Ip, who graduated from the Department of Portuguese in 2009, is a good example. By taking advantage of his Portuguese language skills and Macao’s unique role as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, he has successfully started a business in the faraway country of Angola. He says that the solid language training at UM, the internship experiences, and the courses that increased his understanding of the Portuguese culture, all helped him to integrate into the life in Angola.  

Bevis Leong is another UM graduate who has successfully started a business. Leong graduated from the Department of Computer and Information Science in 2015. In his third year in college, he already founded a company, Bottle Technology Limited. Later, several classmates joined his company as shareholders. They worked together to develop high-tech products that can benefit the community. Leong is very grateful for the opportunities to participate in various competitions both on and off campus, saying that these competitions helped him gain entrepreneurial and research experience. Initially, they rented a small attic to serve as their office. Now they rent an office in the Macau Design Centre. 

Cultivating Loyal Customers with Signature Dishes 
UM encourages students to discover their entrepreneurial potential through different programmes. Naughty Nuri’s Macau, an Indonesian food restaurant in Macao famous for its pork ribs, has many fans. It turns out the three co-owners of the restaurant are all UM graduates. One of them, Wong Chan Wai, is a graduate from the Department of Communication. Before his graduation in 2009, he participated in a business plan competition organised by the university. At one time he could barely keep his head above water, but finally he turned things around with corn dumplings that became immensely popular with the students. By applying the knowledge and skills he gained from running the shop on campus to his current restaurant, he successfully cultivated many loyal customers, including both local residents and tourists.