M.U.S.T. Management Visits Secretary Ao Ieong U for Social Affairs and Culture

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, President Liu Liang of Macau University of Science and Technology led the university management team on a visit to Ms. Ao Ieong U, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao S.A.R. on November 12, 2020. President Liu Liang gave a report on the main achievements of the University over the past recent years. Afterwards, the two parties engaged in friendly discussions on matters of interest.

M.U.S.T. Management visited Secretary Ao Ieong U for Social Affairs and Culture

President Liu Liang noted that the University has scheduled the 30th of the month for the 20th anniversary celebration ceremony and would like to invite the Secretary to officiate the ceremony and share the joys. Further, the President expressed thanks to the country and the S.A.R. Government for their support to the University. As a significant mark for the fast development in the higher education sector of Macao since it returned to the motherland, the University would continue to carry out its responsibilities and obligations and develop high-quality education and extraordinary research. The University would also continue to implement the important instructions from Chairman Xi to Macao’s higher institutions, ground its development on a love-China-love-Macao principle, place efforts especially in cultivation of sense of family and sense of patriotism among students, pursue a quality-based, innovation-driven path for development, adopt proactively the policy of attaching equal importance to teaching and research, fully seize quality and innovation, bring in outstanding mid-age and young academic backbones, and enhance its faculty team. During the pandemic, the University did not withhold classes, acted quickly to deploy cloud classrooms and online teaching and learning, assembled elite research forces to combat the epidemic, ranked the first among the approved for the key science and technology projects of the S.A.R. Government, and became the main battleground of Macao in the fight against COVID-19. The University has aligned closely with the emerging demands of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for innovative talents, made adjustments to its programs and developed new ones. The University opened Macao’s first Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program and inaugurated the Faculty of Medicine, aiming to train professional medical talents for Macao and for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The University’s two state key laboratories and four Ministry of Education Key Research Institutes research bases and joint laboratories have received multiple state-level and ministry-level/provincial science and technology achievements awards. The University has made proactive efforts to implement a “Three-step” approach envisioned for the University’s development path, namely, developing outstanding faculty teams and frontier technology platforms, publishing high-standard papers and patents, and promoting industrialization of patents, to contribute to the adequately diversified and sustainable development of Macao economy. Besides, the University has also worked hard to construct a harmonious campus, empower students to accomplish all-round development, and improve the success rate of employment and further studies for the graduating students. The University fully exerted the One Country Two Systems of Macao and its policy advantages, played to the uniqueness and strengths of M.U.S.T., and made proactive efforts to integrate into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area national development strategy by standing in line with the demands for innovative science and technology and cultivation of talents and by deepening ties with stake-holding organizations.

Secretary Ao Ieong U said that over the 20 years since M.U.S.T. was established, it has been growing alongside the S.A.R. Government. It’s ranked the 32nd among Asian universities in the U.K.’s Times Higher Education. As a non-profit private university, it has been growing fast and made great accomplishments and brought in outstanding talents to strengthen its research forces. She would like to see M.U.S.T. carry on the momentum and make even greater achievements, publish higher-quality research outcomes, promote science and research industrialization, contribute forces to the development of Macao and the Greater Bay Area, and contribute to the national development.

Also attending the meeting were Director Lou Pak Sang of Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Advisor Guo Xiaoming of the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Vice President Jiang Zhihong of M.U.S.T., Vice President Lin Zhijun, Vice President Kwong Ying Wa, Vice President So Yuk-chow and Ms. Li Wen, Senior Supervisor of the Secretariat of the President’s Office.