Sensation Macao

 

  "To touch - Macao's inner world
    To see - Macao's present and future
      To hear - Macao's silence and noises
        To taste - Macao's traditional and fashionable flavors
          To smell - Macao's cross-cultural fragrance"

                                                                              

                                                                              

 

      

Complaints of 'lower GPA' warrant attention

By Wu Yabin, Rosalind

 

The first semester is always the "applying season" for Year 4 students who want to further their studies to a master's degree or even higher. It is also a period that we often hear comments like "If I got a much better GPA, I could have applied for a higher level university," especially for students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSH). This phenomenon brings attention to the perception among students in the University of Macau that the problem of "lower GPA" would impair their opportunities in pursuing a graduate degree in good universities abroad.

 

A student (who prefers to be anonymous) was one of the top students in the department of communication. She faced a tough situation when she considered furthering her study abroad. According to her experience, it is a pre-requisite for entering almost all the major universities with the achievement of an upper second class academic grades or even higher, which means you should have a GPA of at least a B+ (3.3 or higher) level. "Take the the UK as an example, if you want to go to a prestigious school, ranking top 10 in the UK, a GPA of 3.5 or above may be a favorable condition." She continuously added, "So being at the top three, or just forget it."

 

According to a normal distribution, the top students are not the largest group affected by the "lower GPA", the hardest hit students are those in the middle-range. For those who want to go on studying for their master's degree, a GPA of B (3.0) level can be considered as their "survival line". Jim Qian, a Year 4 student majoring in Economics in UM, expressed, "Once you achieve 3.0, your prospects will suddenly be enlightened. If more students can get a GPA above 3.0, more opportunities are given to us."

 

The worries about the "lower GPA" spread more among those students from mainland China. There are two main reasons for this: the original intention and the cost of studying in UM. Because of Macao's unique location as well as its cross-cultural background, studying at UM is considered as a springboard to achieve a higher goal abroad. According to the annual survey conducted by the UM Student Affairs Section, more than 75% mainland students chose to further their study after graduation. What is more, the annual cost for a mainland student studying in UM is about MOP70,000-100,000, including tuition fees, hostel fees and other daily expenses, much higher than in mainland universities. It is considered a big investment on the part of their parents.

 

"I cannot stop worrying about this," Qian's mother said. "If the 'lower GPA' becomes another obstacle, the choice of UM for undergraduate study may not be worth it." She also mentioned another issue that students from other less known universities in Macao would often receive higher GPAs than UM students and therefore be more competitive in their applications for overseas studies than UM students.

 

"I've heard not once that the UM average GPA was lower than those in other universities," Liu Shih-diing, associate professor of the communication department, said. "The related research hasn't been done at this time; therefore I cannot say this phenomenon really exists. However, if there are such complaints, it would become an issue for our students' further development."

 

For the applications of overseas studies, UM students' potential competitors will be in the neighboring areas in Asia. Comparing the average GPA with universities in Hong Kong, UM students are in a disadvantaged position, not only because of the gap of the world rankings between UM and universities in Hong Kong, but also the fact that students there may have a higher GPA than UM students. "It's not that difficult for us get a GPA like 3.0 or even higher," said Dan Wu, a student majoring in sociology at one of the universities in Hong Kong.

 

"I don't think that's the case." Timothy A Simpson, Associate Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities said. "It may feel better for people to know that in
European people never get an A. They get an A once in their life maybe. When European students come to here or American, they are shocked how high the grade is. If you just compare Macao to one of the places, you may think

 

that it would be the disadvantage to the students here, but we are looking in a big picture…" Prof. Simpson also expressed that he is sympathetic to the students' concerns and he is always willing to talk about this when students want. However, "I think if we really change the grading scale, students will get the same letter grade in the end," he added.

 

With the development and globalization of UM, it is important that the complaints of "lower GPA" should be addressed, which means students and their parents expect that a higher percentage of students can achieve a B (3.0) level and therefore provide more students with opportunities of further studies overseas.