UM Rector Yonghua Song and Vice Rector Rui Martins visit Angola’s ministry of higher education, science, technology, and innovation
As part of the effort to support the Macao SAR government’s strategy to develop the city into a service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, a delegation led by University of Macau (UM) Rector Yonghua Song and Vice Rector (Research) Rui Martins recently visited Angola to strengthen collaboration between UM and Portuguese-speaking universities. During the visit, Rector Song and Vice Rector Martins met with the Chinese ambassador in Angola and Angola’s minister of higher education, science, technology, and innovation. They also visited Agostinho Neto University, participated in the 28th annual meeting of the Association of Portuguese Speaking Universities (AULP), and signed a collaboration agreement with Mandume Ya Ndemufayo University, whose rector, Prof Orlando da Mata, is the current president of the AULP.
During the meeting with Cui Aimin, the Chinese ambassador in Angola, Rector Song shared UM’s recent developments, highlighting its relocation to the current campus and its effort in disseminating Chinese history and culture and in producing bilingual professionals in Chinese and Portuguese. Cui highly praised UM for its achievements in Portuguese language education, adding that two senior diplomats from the Chinese embassy in Angola once studied Portuguese at UM and one of them even attended UM’s first Portuguese Summer Course. Cui expressed hope that UM will continue to take advantage of its unique strength to promote cultural exchange between China and Angola.
During his meeting with Prof Maria do Rosário Sambo, Angola’s minister of higher education, science, technology, and innovation, Rector Song said that internationalisation is a priority for the university and UM values its relations with Portuguese-speaking universities. Both parties agreed that universities in Angola and UM should explore areas of mutual interest for further collaboration and work together to address the pressing challenges in higher education.
During the meeting with Prof Pedro Magalhães, rector of Agostinho Neto University, and other members of the university’s management team, on its new campus, Rector Song explained UM’s academic structure and its quick progress in international rankings. He expressed UM’s interest in further advancing faculty and student exchange with Agostinho Neto University at all levels, especially by making use of the existing scholarships provided by the Macao Foundation. Participants in the meeting also discussed the renewal and modification of the collaboration agreement established between the two universities in 1993.
Following the opening ceremony for the AULP annual meeting, the UM delegation signed an agreement with representatives of Mandume Ya Ndemufayo University and visited the university’s faculties of law, medicine, and economics.
