The student admission of the University of Macau (UM) for the academic year 2008/2009 has just completed, the University received a total of 9,789 applications for PhD, Master’s Degree, Postgraduate Certificate, Bachelor’s Degree and Pre-University programmes.
Admission Examination and Recommended Direct Admission are two major admission channels for local secondary school graduates. In order to admit top secondary school students to the bachelor’s degree programmes of the University, all the current Form Six/Senior Middle three/Grade 12 students were invited to participate in the Recommended Direct Admission Scheme in the beginning of this year. Qualified students (top 10% in terms of academic performance) may be admitted after interviews, without the need of taking the Admission Examination. In this academic year, 409 applications were received and 166 excellent students were admitted. Among those admitted, 72 were granted scholarships.
For the Admission Examination, the University received a total of 3,785 applications, among which 837 registered as UM students. In the academic year 2008/2009, the University has introduced its first Admission Examination Scholarship targeting undergraduates admitted through the Admission Examination, and 16 students were offered the scholarship.
In terms of the applications for Master’s and Postgraduate Certificate programmes, the number reached 1,334 with an increase of 40% compared with the previous year. PhD admission also recorded an increase of 30% in applications. UM has not only endeavored to improve and develop research, but also committed to cultivating outstanding students. In 2008/2009, 57 studentships were offered to Master’s students and all full-time PhD students were granted studentships for their research study.
For Chinese Mainland undergraduate student recruitment, we continued to recruit students from 25 provinces and cities as regulated by the Ministry of Education of China. We received over 3,300 applications, among which 1,900 applicants reached the admission score requirements of key Mainland universities. A total of 194 students registered, and their National Entrance Scores had in average excelled 10% of the admission score requirement of the key mainland universities.
This year, in order to support good students from the earthquake affected areas in Sichuan and to be in line with the educational policies of the Ministry of Education of China, the University and the Macao Foundation decided to provide special scholarships, to five students from the Sichuan earthquake affected areas with support of tuition fee, accommodation fee and living subsidies. These five students were from Guangyuan, Dujianguan and Mianyang.