The Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) has recently pointed out that this year’s guaranteed places offered by mainland universities to Macau students hit a record high of 1,397 – and The Chinese Educators Association of Macau Vice President Vong Kuoc Ieng told the Post on Monday that there had been a “noticeable” change in students’ habit of choosing majors at universities in general this academic year, with a “trend towards diversity” and that some of this year’s top-ranking disciplines included Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Vong, who spoke with the Post in a telephone interview, attributed the main reason to the local government’s promotion of its “1+4” appropriate economic diversification development strategy in recent years. Vong said he was glad to see the changes, adding that “if students all concentrate on just one or two professions, it will have a negative impact on their future career planning”.
According to previous statements by the local government, the “1+4” strategy aims to reinforce Macau’s function as “One Centre” for integrated tourism and leisure, officially known as the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, while facilitating the development of four emerging industries: big health; modern financial services; high-tech; and conventions, exhibitions, sports, and the commercial and trade industries.
Vong cited the fact that in the past, professions such as teacher training degrees and even medical degrees had always been popular disciplines, however, due to factors such as the declining birth rate, quite a few industries are now experiencing market saturation, “that is to say, according to our government’s statistics in recent years, it includes an oversupply of teachers, and even difficulties for medical students to find a job”.
Based on the expected demand by civil society in the future, Vong predicted that disciplines such as AI, Information Technology and Nursing would replace Medical Science as the most popular subjects among local students. “We have seen an increase in the number of students enrolled in the nursing profession, and it seems that nursing care for senior citizens may be a trend among the new programmes being offered”, he noted.
The “2025 Joint Entrance Exam of Ordinary Universities in Mainland China for Macau’s Recommended Students”, followed by interviews conducted by the participating mainland universities, was held last weekend, with the admission results announced yesterday.
According to a DSEDJ statement on Monday, a total of 1,413 F6 students from various local secondary schools were recommended to take the entrance exam for 1,397 places offered by 121 tertiary education institutions in Beijing, Guangdong Shanghai and Zhejiang. Among the institutions, China Academy of Art, Ningbo University, Communication University of Zhejiang, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) are new on the list. A separate statement by the bureau yesterday noted that after taking last week’s exam and interview, 1,301 students from Macau had their admission places guaranteed.
“The difference this year is the competition between Shanghai and Beijing,” said Vong, according to whom among the mainland universities, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University in the past provided only five guaranteed places each for Macau students but have each increased their places to 20 this year.
Vong urged the students to value their hard-earned places and “choose the right subject”, underlining that every university place, especially for mainland students, was precious and, therefore, “we should never give up these learning opportunities easily because of the increase in university places” for students from Macau.
This handout photo provided by the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) on Saturday shows some of the bureau’s senior officials, including its director Kong Chi Meng (third from right, standing), visiting Kao Yip Middle School in Zape during the “2025 Joint Entrance Exam of Ordinary Universities in Mainland China for Macau’s Recommended Students”.
