The University of Macau (UM) has joined the Association of University Presidents of China (AUPC), following deliberation by the Board of Directors of the alliance. In addition, Yonghua Song, rector of UM, attended the Forum on Building First-Class Universities 2023. During the forum, Song gave a speech on the topic ‘Strategies for Talent Cultivation and Innovation of First-class Universities upon Resumption of Normalcy’ and shared UM’s characteristics, missions, as well as its practices and experiences of industry-academia collaboration. He also had in-depth discussions with delegates from other prestigious higher education institutions in China on the innovation and development of higher education in the new era. Chen Jie, vice minister of Education, and Choi Yuk-lin, secretary for education of Hong Kong, also delivered a speech at the forum respectively.
AUPC was established in 1997 under the approval of the Ministry of Education, with the aim of coordinating resources for higher education development in China. In 2009, the nine mainland member universities of AUPC—Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Nanjing University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Harbin Institute of Technology—formed the C9 League. They also established a cooperation framework called ‘C9+3’ with three Hong Kong member universities, namely The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. With UM joining the association, the cooperation framework has further expanded to ‘C9+3+1’.
