UM to present Hengqin campus project to lawmakers

UM to present Hengqin campus project to lawmakers

The University of Macau (UM) is going to clear public doubt by presenting the preliminary conception of the establishment of a new campus in Hengqing Island to the Legislative Assembly at 3pm today.

There have been several reports on Hengqin Island's exploitation project, including statements claiming the “removal” of the university was already underway. The university also officially released a statement to express that Hengqin Island is an “ideal” place for a new campus.

However, the removal of the university has prompted students, parents, scholars, media and netizens' concerns as there are discrepancies between the laws in the two places and further detail of the new campus has not yet been disclosed.

According to a source, the university held a seminar to elaborate on the university's development strategy to students, in which plenty of students expressed various concerns on the new campus, saying that they are afraid of the freedom of information retrieval and of speech would be confined after moving to Hengqin Island.

Apart from the matter of liberality, the matter of clearance, traffic, campus atmosphere, public consultation and establishment of a specific surveying group on the campus removal were also brought up by students during the seminar, said the source.
Moreover, the concern of whether students have the right to vote for the removal of the university was also raised by the attended students.

In the university's previous statement, the reason of the campus expansion was due to the lack of space at its current facilities in Taipa.

It said that the UM's campus areas, classrooms, offices, laboratories, dormitories and the student recreation areas are very limited, and as such the university has requested for more land from the government since 2005.

The Hengqin Island thus is the ideal place for the university to cope with its development plan mentioned in the university's 10-Year Development Strategy, it added in the statement.

UM said that if the issue of the removal of the University of Macau is confirmed, it will be a good news for the University and it also shows the mainland and the local government’s support and affirmation on the University’s effort in education.

The university also emphasised that its mission will not change due to the location of campus.

Monday, 06 April 2009
Macau Daily Times