The Vice President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) XI Jinping announced during his inspection in Macau last month: “The Mainland China has decided to develop Hengqin Island. It needs to have a full preparation on the preliminary work before activating the Hengqin Island’s exploitation.” It was quoted in the newspapers recently that the National Development and Reform Commission has announced the development outlines for the implementation of the Pearl River Delta Regional Plan on Reformation and Development, “the project of Hengqin Island’s exploitation and the relocation of the University of Macau (UM) are on progress.” UM said that if the issue is confirmed, it will be a good news for the University and it also shows the Mainland and the Macau SAR government’s support and affirmation on the University’s effort in education.
It is obvious that UM’s campus areas, classrooms, offices, laboratories, dormitories or the student recreation areas are very limited. When looking into other universities, the campus area of UM is much smaller than the reputed universities both nationally and internationally. For example, the campus area for each Harvard University student is 960 m2 and it is 150 m2 for student in Tsinghua University while there is only 8.7 m2 for student in UM. In order to cope with the campus development plan mentioned in the university’s 10-Year Development Strategy, it is a necessity for UM to look for a new area to expand in order to have more space to create a better teaching and learning environment for both students and staff as well as to be geared to international standards.
To solve the problem of insufficient space, the University has suggested to the government for more lands since 2005. The Hengqin Island is just one river separated from Macau and therefore is convenient to access. It is an ideal place for a new campus. It is beneficial to the development of the University and Macao. It has further reflected the success of the implementation of “One Country, Two Systems”.
UM emphasizes that its mission will not change due to the location of campus. The University of Macau is still a university of Macau SAR and a university for Macau’s citizen. Under the “One Country, Two Systems”, the University considers nurturing the local talents as her responsibility and will provide the best teaching and learning environment for students and staff.