Higher Education in Macao: Cooperation as a means of Sustaining Education in the Portuguese Language

Abstract

Public higher education in Macao was created in the early 1990s in response to a strong need on the part of the government to invest in staff training, particularly in bilingual staff (Chinese-Portuguese). Benefiting from a whole history and practice of teaching Portuguese and from a context of official bilingualism (Chinese and Portuguese), public and also private institutions have invested in offering courses taught in the vehicular Portuguese language, and degree, master's and doctoral programmes in Portuguese language and culture, and Chinese-Portuguese translation and interpretation. In this scenario, the economic context, based on the PRC Central Government's policy of investing in Portuguese-speaking countries, has been a strong motivational driver for both learning and teaching, and has brought to the scene private higher education institutions that today stand up to the official ones in offering training in Portuguese language. Early on, cooperation with the outside world gave rise to the signing of agreements, which have shown positive results. One example is the Chinese/Portuguese Translation and Interpretation Course, resulting from the partnership between the Polytechnic Institute of Macau, the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria and the Beijing University of Languages and Culture. In a scenario of development and optimism, coordination between local institutions and cooperation, both internally and externally, are crucial strategies to promote continuous improvement, to design new opportunities and to consolidate Portuguese language teaching. This will enable us to look towards 2049 (Portuguese has been an official language of Macau since 1999 and for a period of 50 years) with optimism and the certainty that Portuguese will continue to play an important role in the Special Administrative Region of Macau.