University of Macau

Infobox_University
name = University of Macau
Universidade de Macau
澳門大學


motto = Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and sincerity
(Traditional Chinese:仁義禮智信)
established = 1981
type = Public
location = Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau
campus = Urban
rector = Iu Vai Pan
staff =
faculty =
undergrad = 4,529 cite web|url=http://www.umac.mo/reg/factsfigures/year0607/student(1).html|title=No. of Registered Students in UM in 2006/2007|accessdate=2007-12-26|author=|publisher=University of Macau|language=]
postgrad =1,440
website= [http://www.umac.mo/ www.umac.mo]

The University of Macau (zh-tp|t=澳門大學|p=ào mén dà xué; _pt. Universidade de Macau), established in 1981, was the first and currently the largest (in terms of student population) university in Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now a Special Administrative Region of China. It was formerly known as "University of East Asia" ( _pt. Universidade de Ásia de Leste; zh-tp|t=東亞大學|p=dōng yà dà xué), and was renamed to "University of Macau" in 1991. The university offers about 100 Doctoral, Master's and Bachelor's degree programs. English is the main medium of instruction, although certain programs are taught in Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese. The current Chancellor of UM is chief executive Edmund Ho and the Rector is Iu Vai Pan.

The university's campus on Taipa Island has expanded dramatically in recent years as a result of the region's rapid economic development and Macau's 1999 return to China. This expansion has allowed Macau to develop local talent as it evolves beyond its colonial past. Student enrollment rose from several hundred students in the 1980s to over five thousand today. Over the same period, the percentage of local Macanese students has soared from 39% to 80%cite web|url=http://www.umac.mo/about_intro.html|title= Introduction to the University of Macau|accessdate=2008-01-05|author=|publisher=University of Macau|language=] .

History

University of Macau's predecessor is the privately owned University of East Asia which was established in 1981. The university started with several undergraduate programs which followed the academic structure of British universities with three years of study. English was the main medium of instruction and the majority of the students were from Hong Kong.

In 1988, the Macau government entrusted the Macau Foundation to acquire the university. The three-year undergraduate programs were expanded to four-year programs, while English remained the main medium of instruction. In 1991, a new university charter was put in place and the university became a public university and was renamed as University of Macau. The student enrollment rose to about three thousands and the percentage of Macau students rose to above 80%. Major construction began in 2003, that includes a new academic building, a student center, four hostel buildings for housing students and stuff, a scientific research center building, as well as the Chinese Medicine Center. The project is expected to be completed in 2011.cite book|author=|year=2007|title=UM Academic Calendar 2007-2008|publisher=University of Macau|isbn=]

Faculties

The university has five research faculties in the fields of Business Administration, Social Sciences and Humanities, Science and Technology, Law, and Education, as well as three education centers: Center for Pre-University Studies, Center for Continuing Studies and Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences. It offers doctorate, Master's, undergraduate, and Bacharelato (higher diploma) programs with more than 360 academic staff members [cite web|url=http://www.umac.mo/reg/factsfigures/year0607/staff(1).html|title=No. of full-time staff at the university (as at 31/12/2006)|accessdate=2007-12-26|author=|publisher=University of Macau|language=] involved in teaching or research.

Faculty of Business Administration

The Faculty of Business Administration is the largest faculty in the university enrolling about one-third of the undergraduate population. The medium of instruction for courses offered in the faculty is English. Currently it offers nine different undergraduate programs through its three departments: Department of Accounting and Information Management, Department of Finance and Business Economics, and Department of Management and Marketing. In addition, the Faculty of Business Administration also offers a two-year MBA program as well as eight doctorate programs.

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities consists of the Department of Chinese, the Department of Communication, the Department of Economics, the Department of English, the Department of Government and Public Administration, the Department of Portuguese, the Department of Psychology and the Department of Sociology. The Faculty provides more than 500 courses on average every semester, including Economics, Statistics, Econometrics, Political Science, Public Administration, Contemporary China Studies, Sociology, Chinese, Portuguese, English, Communications, Journalism and Public Communication, Psychology, Japanese, Historical and Cultural Relations between the East and the West, etc. The Faculty also offers a variety of master’s and doctoral programmes.

Every year, the Faculty arranges interships in local companies and government departments. More than 12 exchange programmes have been established with universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal and the USA.

Faculty of Science and Technology

The Faculty of Science and Technology was founded in 1989. Currently, a solid undergraduate four-year degree in the following departments has been developed: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Department of Computer and Information Science and Department of Mathematics.

Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law offers bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and postgraduate certificate programmes in the Chinese, Portuguese and English languages. The bachelor’s programmes is to prepare jurists who are familiar with Macao SAR legal system; the master’s and PhD Programmes purport to educate knowledgeable and qualified legal professional jurists who are competent to conduct theoretical research and teaching in Macao Law, Comparative Law, European Law, International Law and [http://www.umac.mo/fll/ibl/ International Business Law] . The teaching system of the Faculty basically follows the Roman-German regime with strict standards in teaching style, student recruitment and examination. The faculty members consist of legal experts from Macao, Mainland China, Portugal and other countries.

Faculty of Education

The Faculty of Education offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes. The Faculty provides degree programmes of Secondary Education in Chinese, English and Mathematics, Primary Education and Pre-Primary Education, Educational Administration, Educational Psychology, School Counselling, Curriculum and Instruction, , Physical Education and Sports Studies, etc. An internship system is well established for students to have academic and educational exchanges with other education institutes and universities and to deepen their understanding on contemporary international education.

Graduate degrees in the Faculty has been developed since 1993, leading to the Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, E-Commerce, Mathematics.

At present, there are 33 laboratories for teaching and research purposes in various science and engineering fields.

The library

The University of Macau Library is the largest library in the territory. It is a five-storey building that has a working space area of 15,000 m² and a seating capacity of approximately 400. The print collection includes 210,000 volumes of monographs, 4,000 periodical titles, and 12,000 volumes of old Chinese editions. [cite web|url=http://library.umac.mo/LIBINFO/history.html|title=General information of the University of Macau Library|accessdate=2007-12-26|author=|publisher=University of Macau Library|language=]

Academic links

Since 1991, the university has established academic links and collaborations with more than 90 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, the Philippines, New Zealand and the United States. Starting in 2001, the university has been recruiting students in 14 provinces and cities in China.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.umac.mo/ University of Macau]