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By Chai hua China Daily The University of Macau (UM) has pulled off an academic coup – shifting its entire campus to a new site borrowed from the Chinese mainland.儲存 The first phase of the operation has already begun, with about 2,000 students having moved into their new campus on the East part of the Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, since it formally opened in July this year. The bold move marks one gigantic step ahead of Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions, many of which have merely opened branch campuses on the mainland, notably Shenzhen, as a way of alleviating the acute land shortage problem in the HKSAR. More significantly, the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and spirit are being adhered to. The new UM campus is under Macao’s jurisdiction, with the MSAR’s laws, system of governance and academic freedoms intact. Professor Simon Ho Shun-man, UM’s Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) calls the development a “special creation in history.” “On the same island (Hengqin), we have two systems,” he says. “When you go across the border, it may not be easy to preserve everything you have in Macao, such as our laws, system of governance and, more importantly, academic freedom.” Ho adds. The MSAR government paid 1.2 billion Macao patacas ($150 million) to lease the campus site until 2049 on a renewable basis. Students and staff on the new campus will enjoy the same legal rights as in Macao and shall continue to use the pataca as the common currency. Internet access will be unrestricted, while the provision of water, electricity and gas, as well as telecommunication services will come from the MSAR. People entering the campus from Taipa, Macau, will be exempt from immigration clearance. However, certain barriers remain. An underwater tunnel linking Macao and Zhuhai via the Shi Zi Men waterway provides the only entry and exit points for the new UM campus. The 1,570-meter-long tunnel has four lanes for vehicles, one pedestrian lane and another carrying pipelines. A police station, a customs and a fire station were built north of the campus to allow for prompt assistance in an emergency. As to whether UM intends to open up more in future, Ho says: “For the first three to five years, we’ve to be absolutely sure good campus management prevails. If there are not too many problems, it’s possible we request for a new border gate connecting with the remaining parts of the Hengqin Island to allow for a smoother inter-flow of people.” “We’re already proposing the idea to the relevant authorities, but we have to do things step by step.” To make the new campus a success, the MSAR is not taking any chances. It has pumped 10.2 billion patacas ($1.5 billion) into the project and invited renowned mainland architect He Jingtang -- chief architect for the China Pavilion at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai -- to take charge of the campus design. More than 80 buildings have gone up on the approximately one square kilometer site – almost 20 times the size of the old UM campus on Tai迷你倉a Island. The new facilities include Macao’s biggest library, a University Hall with a 1,000-seat auditorium, eight faculties and a 4-block open research base. The sheer size of the new campus represents a breakthrough in the university’s unassailable goal of providing a key prerequisite to its educational development. The institution has introduced a new concept for Macao’s universities -- residential colleges somewhat modeled on the successful experience of world-class universities. The new campus operates the largest residential college complex in Asia, with up to 12 residential colleges. The low-rise buildings not only have basic living facilities, such as shared rooms, dining halls, study rooms, libraries and computer labs, but also recreational amenities, performance arenas and offices for the students’ union and other student organizations. Each residential college houses up to 450 students, with a college master overseeing student affairs. Fees range from 12,500 patacas ($1,564) per person annually for local students and 20,000 patacas ($2,503) for nonlocals. Besides, 15 communal meals per week, student activities, and water and electricity subsidies are provided. “Our concept is that teaching and learning goes far beyond the classroom and is round-the-clock. The residential college system enhances personal relationships between students and teachers to help foster lifelong ties between them even after graduation,” Ho explains. The university adopts the Siheyuan concept in designing the residential colleges as in traditional ancient Chinese colleges, where buildings would surround a garden in the center to promote interactive communication among students, rather than having a long corridor as commonly seen in Western colleges Elaborating further on the university’s aspirations, Ho says: “Right from the start when we embarked on this project, we consulted many of our colleagues for their views, and concluded that such a system shall form the basis for the future of undergraduate education. “We find that students are now too focused on their studies and teachers have little time to talk to them. We intend to change this. We believe that teachers have a pastoral role to play. They need to care more the students’ all-round development. “In fact, our ‘college’ concept originated from the Tang Dynasty. But, the practice has been abandoned for a long time. Colleges in ancient China emphasized a lot on the relationship between teachers and students. Teachers always treated students as their own children and cared about what life and moral development are all about instead of just academic performance. We want to preserve this traditional Chinese education philosophy.” The second phase of the university’s relocation to the mainland will see the various faculties moving into the new campus by December this year. By January 2014, almost all of the staff and teachers of the University of Macao, formerly known as the University of East Asia, would have settled in. 儲存倉