Dear Colleagues, Students and Alumni,

The proposed development of a UM campus in Hengqin has been a hot topic recently within our University Community and beyond. When the University Administration started the consultation for the new campus in March this year, the intention was to identify the issues the Macao Community would consider most important before such a move would become possible. Along the way, the University also took the opportunity to share its vision for a properly designed campus to suit its educational ideals (however abstract), if such a possibility existed. The heated debates and discussions of the past few weeks on the subject show that Macao people do care for the future of UM.  The consultation did result in getting some important consensus from the Community. For example, it was concluded that the University on Hengqin Island must remain a university for Macao. That is, the University’s educational values, uniqueness, on-campus regulations, as well as the teachers and students’ access to the campus must be similar to the current status in order to accomplish the mission of our university. To achieve these goals, it is crucial to ensure that the land of the campus would be managed by the Macao SAR Government and follow the legal system of Macao.

Of course the idea of developing a main campus in Hengqin didn’t suddenly fall out of the blue sky. In order to give a fuller background which led to the present state of affairs, let me provide the following historical sketches to fill in the gap.
 

• 1. The University has been in constant dialogue with the Government over the issue of space shortage for campus development ever since the establishment of the Macao SAR.
• 2. In 2002 the idea of acquiring a green field site for the construction of a new campus for UM was initiated.
• 3. Several proposals were made to the Government in subsequent years involving: (a) reclamation of land to create a site; (b) purchasing a large site from private owners, and (c) clearing all government facilities in the vicinity of the present campus to make room for the UM campus development. Unfortunately none of them were considered feasible by the Government due to various valid reasons.
• 4. In May 2007, the University learned that the Government was in discussion with the Guangdong Province for the joint development of the Hengqin Island, and within the joint development scheme, the Chief Executive disclosed the possibility of the provision of land on Hengqin for a large UM campus.
• 5. The University Council and the Administration made a field trip to Hengqin and found that the land across the water from Macao was ideal for a green field campus if certain conditions such as immigration and campus legal jurisdiction issues could be resolved. On that basis the University Council drew up a land request for a campus on Hengqin and submitted it to the SAR Government in March 2008.
• 6. In the subsequent months, when the prospect of a joint development of Hengqin between the SAR Government and the Guangdong Province became more hopeful, the SAR Government requested the University to submit a preliminary conceptual campus plan to support its land request.
• 7. In late January of 2009, the SAR Government notified UM of its intention to submit a formal proposal to the Central Government for a campus site for UM on Hengqin, and requested the University to conduct a campus consultation on the educational concepts and legal conditions which the University would consider crucial for establishing a campus in Hengqin.

Since March this year, the idea of developing a campus in Hengqin has become an open topic for discussion, albeit still in abstract form. In that month, the University conducted 17 consultation sessions among students and academic and administrative staff internally, and among educational bodies and alumni externally. A summary of the consultation results was also reported to the Legislative Assembly on April 6.  The University Council received a report from the University Administration prepared on the basis of the results of the consultation.  At the Council meeting on April 9, the University Council passed the motion without objection, and resolved to prepare a formal paper for submission to the SAR Government. The paper was submitted on April 17 2009, setting out the educational, managerial and legal wishes of the University for the development of a campus on the Hengqin Island.

Since the wishes of the University touch on many important policy issues, it is our understanding that the decision to grant our wishes lies with the highest level in the Central Government. While the University is waiting for a favorable decision, it wants to do some provisional planning on the design of the campus so that precious time would be saved when the good opportunity comes. For that purpose the University has obtained the services of a team of professional campus planners through the generous assistance of the SAR Government to advise the University on how a campus should be laid out for an enrolment of 10,000 students. (Please note that the target number of enrolment has been reduced from 15,000 to 10,000 as a result of the consultation.) Some general guidelines have been given to the planners as they start working out possible models for the University’s consideration. For example, the planners have been told that:

• 1. The campus should be a residential campus for all students and most of the staff;
• 2. Student life and academic life should be well integrated on campus through the “collegial system";
• 3. There should be adequate athletic and recreational facilities for students and staff with easy access;
• 4. The landscaping should be pleasant and serene to reflect the importance of serious learning and healthy social life at the University level;
• 5. The campus should be environmentally friendly and operationally efficient; walking distance from one facility to another should normally not exceed 15 minutes;
• 6. The overall style of the campus buildings should reflect the unique cultural background of Macao, although individual buildings would have their characteristics according to the purposes of the buildings.

 
The University Administration will soon conduct consultations on the planning and design of the Hengqin campus. The purpose of my writing to you now is to ask whether you have any suggestions to make to the campus design, whether general or specific. If you can help by giving your input, the planners would be able to incorporate your good ideas into their first draft, so that when the University’s dreamed idea becomes a reality, there would be a readily available campus model on which to conduct serious consultation. I want to thank you in advance for your help in moving this unprecedented exercise forward, hoping that it will become a reality with active support from the University Community.

You can send in your views or suggestions to the University Administration after reading their new consultation document on the campus planning and design (to be announced soon), or to us via email uco.campus@umac.mo on or before 19 May 2009.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Tse
Chair, University Council
6 May 2009