The Times Higher Education (THE) Innovation & Impact Summit 2025 and Student Success 2025 were recently held in the United States. Rector Jun Liu, rector of City University of Macau (CityU), was invited to attend both conferences. At the Innovation & Impact Summit, he delivered a keynote speech titled “Cybersecurity through cross-sector collaboration: A case study of Macau, where East meets West”, sharing CityU’s disciplinary strengths and the innovative defense models and achievements of cross-sector collaboration in cybersecurity among industry, academia, and research in Macao and between China and the West.
The Innovation & Impact Summit 2025 was co-organized by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on the theme “Securing tomorrow: Partnerships and technology for a resilient future”. The summit attracted over 200 representatives from universities and industry leaders to discuss technological collaboration and innovation.
Rector Jun Liu engaged in in-depth exchanges with representatives from institutions including Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, Florida International University, Abu Dhabi University, and Korea University.
In response to the growing cybersecurity threats, Rector Liu shared insights on the establishment of the Macau Cyber Convergence Alliance (MCCA), including its composition across industry, academia, and research, cross-regional collaboration efforts, achievements, challenges, and opportunities. He highlighted that through the joint efforts of the MCCA, local stakeholders, and international partners, the latent time of local cybersecurity vulnerabilities was significantly reduced, ransomware payments were decreased, and major financial losses were successfully averted. Additionally, the cybersecurity field has attracted numerous foreign security operation center providers, creating 1,800 technical jobs and contributing to the appropriate diversification of Macao's local economy.
Rector Liu further emphasized that challenges such as geopolitical factors, data localization requirements, technical coordination, and legal regulations vary in complexity. In the new information era, he said cyber-attacks transcend geographical boundaries, making cross-sector collaboration essential. He recommended that all stakeholders join forces by adopting the innovative and replicable cooperation models and mechanisms of the MCCA, continuously strengthening trust-building, data sharing, and technical training to safeguard the cybersecurity environment.
The Student Success 2025 was co-organized by the University of Georgia under the theme “Empowering practitioners to succeed through uncertainty”, focusing on teacher training and strategies for student success.
