The public Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) will become Macau’s sixth university on April 1, after the Legislative Assembly (AL) unanimously passed a government-initiated bill yesterday establishing a new legal system for the higher education institution’s operation.
IFTM will be renamed Macao Tourism University on April 1 when the bill becomes law.
Currently, there are five universities in Macau: University of Macau (UM), Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), City University of Macau (CityU), and University of Saint Joseph (USJ).
The bill’s outline was passed during a plenary session of the legislature in June last year, after which the bill was reviewed by its 1st Standing Committee, before it was resubmitted to yesterday’s plenary session, which Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U attended, when it was voted on article-by-article in its second and final reading.
According to the new law, the university’s staff members will be generally regulated by the city’s labour law system for the private sector, despite the fact that it is a public higher education institution.
Consequently, the higher education institution will be required to draw up its own system regulating staff recruitment, selection, hiring, salaries and benefits, promotions, social security payments, performance evaluation, incentives, and disciplinary measures.
The new law aims to increase the institution’s flexibility in recruiting highly-qualified academics, management members and other professionals locally and from elsewhere.
The new personnel system will only apply to those employed after the new law takes effect. Those employed before the new law comes into force will still be subject to the institution’s current personnel system.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U (left) and Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) President Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan address yesterday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. – Photo courtesy of TDM
Hengqin campus
During yesterday’s plenary session, Ao Ieong said that becoming a university will make it easier for the institution to set up additional campuses outside Macau such as on Zhuhai’s Hengqin island. She said that the future possible setting-up of a campus in Hengqin will strengthen the Macao Tourism University’s role in training tourism professionals for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), with the aim of being able to participate in training tourism professionals for the whole country in the long term.
IFTM President Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan said during the plenary session that after becoming a university, her institution will need to put in a great deal of effort into expanding its programmes, particularly considering that there is high demand from people in the mainland intending to study for a master’s degree or a doctoral degree here.
Vong said that with the Macao Tourism University to strengthen its participation in the development of Hengqin and the GBA, it will continue to expand its enrolment.
MPU bill
Meanwhile, yesterday’s plenary session also passed a government-initiated bill establishing a new legal system for the public Macao Polytechnic University’s (MPU) operation.
The new MPU law will also take effect on April 1. The bill’s outline was also passed during a plenary session in June last year, after which the bill was also reviewed by its 1st Standing Committee.
The higher education institution became a university in March 2022.
The new MPU law, which will also take effect on April 1, also aims to increase the institution’s flexibility in recruiting highly-qualified academics, management members and other professionals locally and from elsewhere.
Ao Ieong also noted during the plenary session that while the public University of Macau (UM) is a comprehensive university, the Macao Polytechnic University is positioning itself as an applied university. The Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, which will be renamed Macao Tourism University, will continue to place special emphasis on occupational training for highly-qualified professionals, she pointed out.
Rosário introduces road traffic bill
Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário speaks during yesterday’s plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle. – Photo courtesy of TDM
Meanwhile, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário introduced the outline of the government’s new road traffic bill during yesterday’s plenary session, but the legislature did not arrange for the vote of the bill’s outline yesterday. Instead, the legislature will schedule another plenary session in due course for its vote.
Observers have noted that this type of arrangement is rare.
Normally, the outline of a bill is voted on by lawmakers during a plenary session on the same day of its presentation by government officials.
Rosário underlined during yesterday’s plenary session that the sole major new thing proposed by the bill is the implementation of a driving-offence points system, adding that various other items proposed by the bill are primarily merely about raising penalties for other different driving offences.
Yesterday’s debate between officials including Rosário and lawmakers focused on the proposed driving-offence points system. Rosário pledged that the government will be “very open” in discussing and studying opinions raised by lawmakers and other members from civil society concerning details of the driving-offence points system.
Once lawmakers have passed the outline of the bill in another plenary session, it will be submitted to one of the legislature’s standing committees for review, after which it will again be submitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
