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| Dr. Angela Chang Wen Yu will go to Austria to study advertising appeals and strategy on a Eurasia Pacific Uninet scholarship |
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| PhD student Ms. Song Yan earlier went to Austria to study TB control on a Eurasia Pacific Uninet scholarship |
Dr. Angela Chang Wen Yu, an assistant professor of the Department of Communication of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Macau (UM), will go to Austria next summer to study advertising appeals and strategy on a PhD scholarship offered by the Eurasia Pacific Uninet. Dr. Chang will be the first professor from local higher education institutions to receive research funding from the ministry of education of Austria. Her visit to Austria is expected to have some immediate effects on the academic research and cultural exchange between Macao and Austria. Previously, another UM member, a PhD student of the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) named Song Yan, also received a PhD scholarship from the Eurasia Pacific Uninet for a five-month study and research stint in Austria.
Dr. Chang mainly teaches advertising strategy planning. She has long been dedicated to the study of cross-cultural advertising and consumption, media application, eye tracking and communication effect. Next summer she will go to The University of Applied Arts Vienna to study “Advertising Appeals and Strategy Study in Vienna:An Intercultural Perspective” for three months.
Dr. Chang is from Taiwan. She said that Vienna is an international city with rich musical and cultural heritage. The city is inhabited by people of different races from around the world. The types of business operation and people’s eating habits in Vienna are different from those in Asian countries, and that’s why one can see advertising billboards and special signboards in streets and alleys that specifically cater to local tastes. For instance, there are no 24-hour convenience stores or all-night markets in Vienna, but there are stores that sell different kinds of German-style pig feet and mouthwatering hand-made desserts. Dr. Chang said she believes that Vienna’s unique consumption and life styles will help her examine how outdoor advertisements effectively communicate with consumers and achieve desired effects from a cross-cultural perspective by comparing outdoor advertisements in Macao, Taiwan and Austria. Dr. Chang will be the first professor from local higher education institutions to receive research funding from the ministry of education of Austria. Her visit to Vienna is expected to have some immediate effects on the academic research and cultural exchange between the two regions, and such effects will be particularly pronounced in the area of research findings. It is expected that her work in Vienna will yield to the publication of some empirical cases to the benefit of many students.
Ms. Song Yan specializes in Health Management. Her supervisor is Prof. Bian Ying, programme coordinator of Health Management. Ms. Song went to the Medical University of Vienna in August 2010 for a five-month study and research stint. During her stay in Vienna, she studied the application of psycho-therapy in interfering with disease control under the guidance of Prof. Thomas Wenzel, an expert on psycho-therapy. Her project was “Influence of Health Education on TB Patients’ Drug Therapy Preference& Behavior Changing Based on DOTS Strategy in China”.
China has a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB), with the number of TB patients ranking No. 2 in the world. DOTS Strategy is an international TB control strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. It is considered the cheapest and most effective of all TB control strategies. However, the poor therapeutic compliance in TB patients in China who are treated with DOTS Strategy seriously detracts from the strategy’s effectiveness. So how to enhance Chinese TB patients’ therapeutic compliance is of extreme importance to the effective application of DOTS Strategy in China. Ms. Song’s research project was based on the fundamental theories of psycho-therapy. It examined the role of the Health Belief Model in changing TB patients’ medication behaviour, thereby shedding some light on how to enhance patients’ therapeutic compliance and how to better control TB. With the guidance of Prof. Thomas and his team members, she learned systematic knowledge and methodologies about psychology and psycho-therapy. Not only has her study in Vienna help improve her knowledge structure and research quality, but it has enabled her to acquire the European experience in preventing and treating contagious diseases such as TB, which she believes has pointed a new direction for China in TB prevention and control.
The Eurasia Pacific Uninet was founded in 2000. It is committed to enhancing the ties and cooperation in higher education between Austria and the Asia-Pacific region. The organization is funded by the federal department of education, science and culture of Austria. It takes as its mission advancing the academic exchange between more than 100 member institutions through providing PhD scholarships, postdoctoral scholarships, research plans, and summer programmes. UM and the Eurasia Pacific Uninet have signed an agreement on academic exchange. Last year, a PhD student of UM’s ICMS became the first student in Macao to receive a scholarship from the organization.
