UM Attracts and Retains Talented People to Support the Development of the Greater Bay Area

If you want to retain talented people, you need to paint them a future they want to be a part of. To support the Macao SAR government’s policy to develop Macao through education, the University of Macau (UM) has launched various talent recruitment programmes and cross-institutional learning programmes, in addition to providing quality education that meet the needs of the fast-developing Greater Bay Area.  The purpose of these strategies is simple: to encourage talented people to stay in Macao and explore opportunities for collaboration with their counterparts in the Greater Bay Area. 

Attracting the Best People with Special Programmes

UM attaches great importance to recruiting local talent and provides attractive conditions to maximise employee potential. Greta Mok, associate professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology, was born and raised in Macao. She worked in Hong Kong for some time after obtaining her PhD degree from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. But later she decided that UM could offer greater scope for career development. So she joined UM. With the great support of the university, she founded the Biomedical Imaging Laboratory. Last year, a team led by her received three international awards. With overseas experience, Prof Mok hopes to promote the development of nuclear medicine and its clinical applications to benefit Macao residents. 

To attract the best people and promote the sustainable development of postgraduate education and international academic collaboration, UM launched the UM Macao Talent Programme, which consists of four programmes, namely the UM Macao PhD Scholarship Programme, the UM Macao Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, the UM Macao Distinguished Visiting Scholar Programme, and the UM Macao Fellow Programme. The UM Macao Fellow Programme is targeted at Macao residents and aims to systematically train outstanding local scholars to become world-class experts in their respective fields so as to enable Macao to keep pace with the other cities in the Greater Bay Area for a synergistic effect.  

The UM Macao Fellow Programme offers a three-year contract to successful applicants, who will have the opportunity to work at reputable universities or institutions outside Macao as visiting scholars or researchers during the contract term. Those who pass the performance appraisal at the end of the contract term may have the opportunity to be appointed to the rank of assistant professor at UM. Many young scholars from Macao have been appointed under this programme since its launch in 2015. They specialise in medicine, engineering, education, and other areas that have been identified as key areas for collaboration in the Greater Bay Area. Dr Chong Cheong-Meng, a lecturer in the Institute of Chinese Medical Science at UM, is one of the scholars who joined UM this year through the programme. Dr Chong’s main research interests are neurodegenerative diseases. He says, ‘Previously, I conducted postdoctoral research at UM for three years, and I felt UM is a university with enormous potential, so I applied to the programme. ’

Encouraging Talented People to Stay in Macao with Innovative Programmes

UM is committed to providing quality education that keeps pace with the fast-changing society in order to prepare local talent to participate in the important projects in the Greater Bay Area after graduation. To support the Greater Bay Area’s ambition to become an international hub for technology and innovation, UM Rector Yonghua Song says the university will launch a bachelor of science programme in mathematics, with specialisation in statistics and data science, as well as a master’s degree programme in data science. The two programmes aim to produce professionals in the related fields so they can contribute to the development of the Greater Bay Area, especially in the fields of big data and smart city development. Prof Jia Weijia, director of the Centre for Data Science at UM, says the programmes will include courses in finance, education, language, law, and precision medicine. ‘We want to help local talent upgrade themselves and prepare them to apply big data directly in their own fields. ’ 

With the central government’s support for higher education in Macao, the Macao SAR government’s investment in education, and Macao’s unparalleled advantages in the Greater Bay Area, UM will continue to launch new strategies to encourage local talent to stay in Macao so they can contribute to the development of the Greater Bay Area and China.