The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) enrolled the first batch students from mainland China this semester, but Rector Stephen Morgan assured that Beijing did not impose any conditions regarding academic freedom on the Macau institution.
In September, USJ revealed that it received the green light from the Chinese Ministry of Education to receive students from mainland China, in an experimental phase, for graduate programs in Architecture, Business Administration, Information Systems and Science.
“The authorization came too late for our recruitment last year, but this semester we have already enrolled three or four students [from China]”, Stephen Morgan told Lusa.
The Rector said he believes USJ will have no problem filling the quota of 30 students for the 2022/2023 school year. “We could probably fill it even if it was three times bigger,” he added.
Stephen Morgan assured that the Chinese Ministry of Education did not make any demands on USJ, which was the only university in Macau not authorized to receive students from China, due to its connection with the Catholic Church.
The Rector admitted, however, that the institution has “guaranteed” that students from mainland China will not be able to switch to courses in Religious Studies nor will they be “subject to any form of religious indoctrination”.
In 2014, USJ sacked a professor of Political Science, Éric Sautedé, due to comments he made about Macau politics in the local press.
“Politics is a sensitive thing in this part of the world,” admitted Stephen Morgan, who added that “Macau doesn’t have a really active political party culture.”
“I’m certainly not interested in importing here, for example, some of the tensions across the Greater Bay Area,” Rector Morgan said, referring to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
Tensions that “have no place at this university”, Stephen Morgan underlined. “The Catholic Church itself no longer has an active political position and I think that, in general, this is positive,” he said.
On a visit to the USJ campus in February, the deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Macau, Zheng Xincong, said that the institution should reinforce the “patriotism” of students.
“Our students have to understand that, regardless of the 500 years of Portuguese presence here, Macau is China”, said Stephen Morgan. “Patriotism doesn’t mean agreeing with everything my country does, whether right or wrong,” he added.
The USJ Rector said he believed the authorization, valid for three years, could be extended “to a much larger quota” in 2024, once the Ministry of Education can “assess the experience” of the first group of students.
USJ was created in 1996 as a Catholic higher education institution by the Portuguese Catholic University and the Diocese of Macau, sharing a 38,145 square meter space with Colégio Diocesano de São José 6, on a campus that welcomes about two thousand students.
