About CityU
Every great city has a successful City University
CityU
With the full support of the Ministry of Education of China and the Macau S.A.R. Government, City University of Macau has weathered through 33 years of history rife with challenges and noteworthy feats to emerge as a living testimony to this most memorable and extraordinary time. In 1981, fulfilling their dreams of helping build a greater China and a better Macau, Dr. Wong King-Keung, Dr. Woo Pak-Hay and Dr. Ng Yuk-Lun overcame great difficulties to found the University of East Asia (UEA), the predecessor of the City University of Macau. The UEA was the first official university in Macau set up by the Chinese people in more than 400 years. Privately owned and managed, the UEA was established with the hope of nurturing talents for the society and advancing higher education in Macau. Then in 1992, in order to cope with the breakneck speed of Macau’s economic growth and at the same time maintain regional social stability, the University of East Asia was restructured into three universities: the public-funded University of Macau and Macao Polytechnic Institute, and East Asia Open Institute (Macau), which remained in private hands and consisted of the Research Institute and the Open College of the former University of East Asia. With the approval of the Macau Government at the time, a new university soon emerged as a result of the collaboration between the Open College of the former UEA and the Portuguese Open University (Universidade Aberta) – Asia International Open University (Macau). Hence, City University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic Institute and University of Macau all share the same origin.
In September 2010, upon the invitation of the three founding members of the University, Mr. Chan Meng Kam took over Asia International Open University (Macau) and was appointed Chairman of the University Council. Asia International Open University (Macau) was officially renamed City University of Macau (Portuguese: Universidade da Cidade de Macau) in February 2011. After the takeover, the strategy of "renaming, restructuring, transforming, upgrading" has been actively implemented. The branding effect of “City University” for Macau, a city with more than five centuries of history and first saw the convergence of eastern and western cultures, has been utilized, just as our namesakes in New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong have done. This not only shows the sense of responsibility Mr. Chan has to Macau, but also puts his continuing mission of “Macau governed by citizens of Macau, in service of the community” in action.
City U has been approved by the Ministry of Education to accept full-time undergraduate students from mainland China since 2012. This marks City University as the third local higher education institute after the University of Macau and the Macau University of Science and Technology that has been approved to accept all levels of students (including Bachelor, Master and Doctoral degrees) from the mainland, as well as Macau and Hong Kong, generating renewed attention for the higher education sector in Macau. City University of Macau is spearheaded by a strong leadership formed in 2013. At the core of this leadership are the newly appointed Rector, Prof. Pang Su-Seng, who is a renowned Chinese-American scholar born in Macau and formerly the Associate Vice Chancellor of Louisiana State University, and Registrar, Prof. Tsai Niann-Chung, the former Registrar of Shih Hsin University in Taiwan, as well as Vice Rector, Prof. Aliana Leong, an experienced academic, very well-known not only in Hong Kong and Macau, but also overseas. Over the past two years, City University of Macau has gradually built up the faculty, developed a flawless academic system, and streamlined the administrative management, becoming a vanguard in Macau’s higher education.
Multi-level, Multi-disciplinary Education
Guided by the motto, “rooted in Macau and serve the interest of Macau”, City University of Macau focuses on the ultimate goal of improving the students’ overall quality and lays the foundation for the youth of Macau to enhance their competitiveness and gain better opportunities in the future. After years of resolute efforts, City U has established its own distinct characteristics and has become increasingly well-known for several disciplines such as, Business Administration, Psychology, Tourism Management, and Cultural Industries. Newly opened courses in Arts in Design, Education and Applied Economics are now popular choices for students in Macau, leading to the continuing rise in the quality and quantity of applicants. This is particularly notable in City U’s postgraduate programmes, which are highly sought after by working students. Growing from 301 full-time students in 2011 to 3070 in 2013, City University of Macau has not only seen an incredible ten-fold increase in student population in just two years, but has also retained over 60% of local students.
Staff and Faculty From All Around the World
The teacher-student ratio at City U has always been kept within the optimal range for the most effective teaching and learning environment. Strengthening the faculty remains a priority in City U’s development. The University currently boasts of a highly educated faculty led by renowned academics such as Professors Pang Su-Seng, Aliana Leong, Tsai Niann-Chung, Shen Heyong and Dr. Qiu Xiaohua, with more than 80% of the teachers holding a doctoral degree. City U has also appointed many internationally respected scholars as Visiting Professors, among whom are analytic psychologists Prof. Paul Kugler, Prof. John Beebe and Prof. Kazuhiko Higuchi, tourism management expert Prof. Ma Yong and Dr. Walter Jamieson, educators Prof. Wang Cheng-Yen and Prof. Huang Fu-Shun, economist Prof. Wen Yuankai, and the founding father of the cultural creative industries, Prof. John Hawkins. Moreover, to encourage academic exchange and collaboration, City University of Macau has signed cooperation agreements with tertiary institutes all around the globe, including Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal, Florida International University in the United States, Oxford University and Middlesex University in Britain, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in the United Arab Emirates, Groupe Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Troyes en Champagne in France, Chinese Culture University in Taiwan and Hainan University in mainland China. As the current top management of City U consists of talents from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and the United States, and the faculty counts Professors from various countries like China, Great Britain, Portugal, Singapore, and others, City University of Macau is truly a multicultural hub with global perspectives.
CityU E-Campus for Smart Management
For over two years, City University of Macau has been working on the modernization of educational hardware and digitization of information for teaching and learning. To this end, City U has heavily invested in building a world-class digital platform to support contemporary methods of teaching and learning, academic research and management. It will establish City University of Macau as a comprehensive educational institute which focuses on humanities and digitization, and enable City U to meet the rising demand for diversified talents in Macau. The "CityU E-Campus" platform will integrate all e-school applications and centralize their development, placement, operation, management and maintenance into one shared database synchronized with the campus card system. By building and utilizing cutting-edge technology for the e-campus platform, City U can better optimize educational resources and improve staff efficiency in both working and learning, as well as completely change the way of management and service delivery, helping to bring about a smarter City U.
