UNIVERSITY OF MACAU

In 1991, under a new University Charter, the University became the public University of Macau. The University primarily aimed to educate talents from Macao to fulfill the needs from the transfer of sovereignty of 1999. As a result, the student enrollment rose from several hundreds to over five thousands now and the percentage of Macao students soared from 39% to 90% . The University had particularly made significant contributions educating talents in the fields of public administration, law and education.

Today, the University had the Faculty of Business Administration, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Faculty of Science and Technology, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Education, the Centre for Pre-University Studies and the Centre of Continuing Studies and Special Programmes. The University offers undergraduate, Master?s, doctorate and Bacharelato (higher diploma) programmes. There are more than 350 academic staffs with good academic qualifications and experiences in teaching and research. Some of the academic staffs have PhD degrees from famous universities in various countries or regions, like Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The academic staffs have presented hundreds of papers in many international conferences or academic journals. There are three patent registrations resulting from technologies developed in the University. The University has also accomplished 10 research projects in joint research sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and in four Eureka R & D projects with European partners.

The University had developed an electronic campus, with more than 1,000 personal computers and 100 workstations and servers on campus, and runs the largest campus-wide wireless network in Macao. More than 40 laboratories support the needs for course development, teaching and research. A state-of-the-art international library has around 200,000 volumes of monographs and the Online Electronic Databases are developed on an ongoing basis. The documentary Centre in the Library has one of the better-known collections, in the Asia Pacific region, of documents from international organizations.

Since 1991, the University has established academic links and cooperation with 91 institutions around the world. It is a member of the International Association of Universities, the International Association of University Presidents, the Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific and the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific. The University?s student exchange programmes currently bring over 100 students every year from Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Starting from 2001, the University has been recruiting students in 14 provinces and cities in China.

As the largest and leading university in Macao, the University of Macau has its mission in providing quality higher education in Macao. To fulfill future needs, the plan for expansion is to build more academic buildings, laboratories, offices, research centres, student activity centres and hostels. In curriculum development, the University will be offering more programmes to respond to the needs of Macao society.

The University has primarily been a teaching university. Now, with its qualified academic staff and research capability, the University will further improve the research environment and strive for excellence in teaching and research. It is the goal of the University to become the leading higher education institution for teaching and research in Macao and an important international university in the region.