The ceremony was officiated by Dr. Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Dr. Tam Chon Weng, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, and Dr. Fanny Vong, President of IFT
The 2019 Graduation Ceremony of Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) was held today (30 May 2019). Ceremony was officiated by Dr. Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Dr. Tam Chon Weng, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, and Dr. Fanny Vong, President of IFT. The Liaison Office of the Central Government, the Office of the Commissioners of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, legislative council members, government officials and high school representatives, scholarship sponsors, representatives of the tourism and hospitality industry, parents and faculty members were invited to attend this ceremony.
At the Graduation Ceremony, Dr. Chui Sai On expressed Macao Government will continuously provide strong backing to IFT so that it can fully capitalise on its advantages and to strengthen programmes international recognition. In response to the needs of the society, new programmes will be launched to nurture diversified talents for Macao to accelerate the construction of “One Centre, One Platform”, to actively participate in the development of “Belt and Road Initiative” and Greater Bay Area, and to exert greater efforts to build Macao as a tourism education and training base.
There are 355 graduates of this year's diploma and bachelor's degree programmes. According to the "graduate’s employment survey" conducted in November 2018, 75% of the employed graduated works in the tourism and hospitality industry, 96% of the local employed graduates with the median salary of MOP15,300, and 82% of the graduates recommend the bachelor's degree programmes of IFT.
IFT always emphasises the importance of developing an international network, and the quality of its teaching has also been recognised internationally. The number of domestic and foreign universities, organisations and institutions which have established cooperative relationships with IFT has continued to increase. The number of exchange students in the 2018/19 academic year has increased by 20% compared with that of last year; currently, students of bachelor degree programmes come from 31 countries and regions.
IFT has always been committed to providing the best quality of tourism education. With the enforcement of the new higher education system, IFT is actively preparing for the new programmes, and plans to launch Postgraduate Diploma, MSc programmes and PhD programmes from academic year 2019/20, upon approval by relevant departments.
Additionally, the national flag-raising ceremony has been held at IFT Mong-Há Campus for the first time on the gradation day, aiming to enhance the sense of national identity of students and staff members and to cultivate patriotism towards China and Macao.
