Tony Wong in Hengqin
Yesterday’s Open Day of the public University of Macau (UM), in addition to being held on its main campus, also included its current teaching and research facility operated in Hengqin during the ongoing “transitional period” before the scheduled completion of its new, second campus on the island in Zhuhai City in 2028.
The future new campus will be the university’s first campus outside the jurisdiction of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and it will be the university’s second campus. Geographically, both campuses are located in Hengqin, but the first, the current one is under the MSAR’s direct jurisdiction on a plot of land, covering one square kilometre, leased from the Chinese mainland.
The 106-square-kilometre Hengqin island in Zhuhai City is officially known as Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
Construction of the UM new campus, located in the west of Hengqin island, fully commenced in December last year, marked by a “construction commencement” ceremony at that time. The university held a “land handover and groundbreaking” ceremony in December 2024 marking the launch of the new campus project at that time.
The UM’s teaching and research facility currently in operation in Hengqin has been set up in an office building there so that the university’s teaching and research activities can be carried out for the time being on the island during a transitional period before the completion of its new campus. The facility is officially known as Transitional Research and Education Site of the Campus in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
The current Transitional Research and Education Site, which started operating in August 2024, is housed on the 9th to 12th floors in Block A, Yuxin Tower (宇信大廈) in Hengqin. It was open to members of the public for the first time during yesterday’s UM Open Day.
The UM is scheduled to operate two Transitional Research and Education Sites in Hengqin before the operational start of its new campus. The other Transitional Research and Education Site, to be located in Dezhi Plaza (德智廣場), is scheduled to start operating in August this year.
Both Yuxin Tower and Dezhi Plaza are located near the Macau government-developed Macau New Neighbourhood (MNN) residential estate.
Dezhi (“Virtue and Wisdom”) Plaza, a property development project consisting of about a dozen high-rise and low-rise buildings, was initially slated to operate as a “German City” commercial complex, but it is now being converted into the first phase of the Macau government’s Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town project.
Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town’s 3 phases
The Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town is one of the Macau government’s four future large-scale projects aiming to inject new impetus into Macau’s long-term development. Except the university town, the other three large-scale projects will all be located in Macau.
The Macau government plans to develop its Macau-Hengqin International Education (University) Town project in three phases. The first phase is transitional teaching and research facilities to be used by three Macau public universities, namely UM, Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), and the Macao University of Tourism (UTM), before the completion of their respective new campuses in Hengqin.
In the first phase, according to the Macau government’s previous announcements, the MPU and UTM are also scheduled to start operating their respective transitional teaching and research facilities in Hengqin in August or September this year, namely in Dezhi Plaza, where the UM will run its second Transitional Research and Education Site.
The upcoming transitional teaching and research facilities in Dezhi Plaza to be shared by the three universities will cover a gross floor area of 65,000 square metres.
The second phase is the UM’s new campus in Hengqin, the partial and full operation of which are slated for 2028 and 2029, while the third phase is the new campuses of the MPU and UTM in Hengqin, construction of which, according to the Macau government’s previous announcements, is slated to start in 2027 and be completed in 2030.
Open Day tour
During yesterday’s UM Open Day, a tour of the UM Transitional Research and Education Site in Hengqin’s Yuxin Tower was held by several UM staff members for prospective students and other members of the public visiting there.
According to the tour, which the Post also attended, the UM is currently running classes for eight postgraduate programmes in its Transitional Research and Education Site in Yuxin Tower, attended by over 420 students.
The four-floor site, according to the tour, covers a total gross floor area of 4,478 square metres, including facilities such as an exhibition hall, classrooms, meeting rooms, office rooms, shared office spaces, and laboratories.
As its current Transitional Research and Education Site, the second one to be located in Dezhi Plaza will also only run postgraduate classes.
The UM expects to have around 800 students in its two transitional sites in Hengqin in the upcoming new academic year 2026/27.
Yesterday’s tour also included a presentation about the UM’s new campus.
Visitors participate in the “UM Seal: Lacquer Bookmark Crafting” event in a classroom of the university’s Transitional Research and Education Site in Hengqin’s Yuxin Tower during yesterday’s Open Day. – Photos: Tony Wong
Prospective students listen to a presentation about the UM’s new campus, held at the site’s exhibition hall, during yesterday’s Open Day.
This photo taken yesterday shows Block A of Yuxin Tower.
