The Legislative Assembly (AL) passed yesterday a government-initiated bill to amend the Non-higher Education System Framework Law and Tertiary Education System Law, which will merge the government’s Education Development Fund, Higher Education Fund, and Students Social Welfare Fund.
The bill was presented to the legislature by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong.
The bill’s outline was passed by the legislature in its first reading late last year, after which it was reviewed by one of its standing committees. A plenary session was held in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday after passing the bill in its second reading during its final article-by-article debate and vote.
The new law aims to simplify the administrative procedures for academic staff and to streamline the granting of financial assistance and student welfare, according to the bill’s supporting document.
According to the new law, an autonomous fund will be established through a future supplementary administrative regulation which will replace the existing Higher Education Fund, Education Development Fund and Student Social Welfare Fund. The future fund will be organised, managed and operated in line with the future administrative regulation (by-law).
According to the new law, the Higher Education Commission and the Non-Higher Education Commission will be merged into a single advisory body.
The new law also states that the Macau Public Security Forces Academy (ESFSM) may not have the same administrative and financial autonomy as other public higher education institutions in general, but that special provisions can be set up on certain matters, such as about degree level courses to train new police, customs or fire officers, and the composition of the teaching staff as well as other things.
The new law exempts eligible public higher education institutions from financial restrictions so that they can spend more than is provided for in their respective budgets and do not need to earmark specific funds for scientific research, so as to help local public higher education institutions promote the development of industry, academia and research, as well as vis-à-vis the assumption that their future income from scientific research will continue to increase and the share of the government’s funding in the institutions’ expenditure will gradually decrease.
