Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U yesterday called for civil society to “discuss and study” whether it is reasonable for the public University of Macau (UM) to continue charging low tuition fees for local students, saying that the annual tuition fee is even cheaper than that of private kindergartens that are not covered by the government’s free education system.

According to Ao Ieong, local students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree programme at the University of Macau will pay a tuition fee of 37,500 patacas per year from the next academic year of 2022/23, whereas the government currently spends 210,000 patacas on average on a student enrolled in a bachelor’s degree at local public higher education institutions per year.

Ao Ieong made the remarks during a one-day Q&A session in the legislature’s hemicycle about her portfolio’s policy guidelines for next year.

The policy secretary talked about the University of Macau’s tuition fees in reply to a question by directly-elected lawmaker-cum-banker Ngan Iek Hang who asked about an increase in tuition fees at the university for the next academic year.

According to the UM website, each local student who started their bachelor’s degree course in the current academic year of 2021/22 at the University of Macau pay a tuition fee of 30,000 patacas per year until the end of the course, whereas their non-local counterparts pay an annual tuition fee of 104,200 patacas.

However, local students enjoy a tuition fee deduction of 5,200 patacas per year, which means that in reality they only have to pay 24,800 patacas per year.

The UM annual tuition fee of 24,800 patacas for local students has been in force since the early 2000s, after a reduction in tuition fees for local students at that time – i.e., the tuition fees for local students have not changed for almost two decades.

According to the University of Macau’s new tuition fee scheme for the next academic year of 2022/23, Ao Ieong said, each local student starting their bachelor’s degree next year will have to pay an annual tuition fee of 37,500 patacas, but they will enjoy a tuition fee deduction of 6,000 patacas for their first year, which means that their tuition fee will be 31,500 patacas for the first year.

Ao Ieong, whose portfolio also oversees the city’s education sector, underlined that on average the local government currently needs to spend 210,000 patacas per year on each student enrolled in a bachelor’s degree. The policy secretary said that the University of Macau’s new annual tuition fee will still be even lower than the fees charged by local schools and kindergartens that are not covered by the government’s free education network.

Most of the schools and kindergartens in Macau are privately run, but most of them are covered by the government’s free education network – i.e., students do not need to pay tuition fees. Those studying in privately-run schools and kindergartens that are not covered by the government’s free education system pay comparatively high tuition fees. 

Consequently, Ao Ieong said she believed that civil society should discuss the issue and study whether it is reasonable for a local bachelor’s degree student at the University of Macau to pay a still comparatively low annual tuition fee of 37,500 patacas, especially considering the large difference with the government’s cost per student enrolled in a bachelor’s degree course. 

According to the UM website, a local student who started a two-year master’s degree in the current academic year of 2021/22 at the University of Macau had to pay a tuition fee of 36,000 patacas per year, whereas their non-local counterparts needed to pay an annual tuition fee of 75,000 patacas.

The University of Macau has published its new tuition fee scheme for postgraduate students (master’s degree and PhD degree) for the next academic year of 2022/23 on its website, according to which local students starting their master’s degree next year will have to pay an annual tuition fee of 48,900 patacas, whereas their non-local counterparts will have to pay an annual tuition fee of 87,000 patacas.

University of Macau Rector Song Yonghua said during yesterday’s Q&A session that his university has decided to increase its tuition fees from next year with the aim of increasing its income so that the government can spend less on the university. Song said that his university’s tuition fees for students enrolled in a master’s degree have not been changed for a long time, because of which his university has decided to increase the annual tuition fees for master’s degrees for local students from 36,000 patacas to around 48,000 patacas, a 35 percent increase. Song said that the new tuition fees for master’s degrees will still be lower than neighbouring regions. He also said that after an increase next year, the tuition fees will not be changed for the next two or three years.

Central Library project

Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also said during yesterday’s Q&A session that the government now believed that the new Central Library project would probably not be completed in 2024 or 2025 as initially scheduled.

The government said early this year that it expected the project to be completed by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. The new Central Library will be built on the plot of the former Hotel Estoril near Praça do Tap Seac.

Ao Ieong said yesterday that the government aimed to sign an agreement by the end of this year with the project’s architectural team from the Netherlands, which will submit a detailed design for the project to the local government afterwards.

Ao Ieong did not say when the government expected the project to be finally completed. 

Tackling Omicron threat

Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also said that the local government, which has been carrying out its COVID-19 prevention work in response to the ongoing threat from the Delta variant transmission worldwide, will now also have to carry out its work in response to the potential threat from the Omicron variant – which was classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last week as a “variant of concern” (VOC). The Omicron variant, which was discovered by virologists in South Africa last month, is now spreading to a rising number of countries and regions across the world.

Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also said that the government plans to build a retirement home for senior citizens on plot “A8” in the Zone A land reclamation area, providing 850 beds, with the aim of reducing the length of time senior citizens currently have to wait for a bed. 

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U (third from right, upper row, not wearing a facemask) speaks during yesterday’s Q&A session about her portfolio’s 2022 policy guidelines in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. Photo: GCS