Thank you for your interest in learning more about the Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) Programme offered by the University of Macau. As the only public comprehensive university in Macao and with the mission to cultivate outstanding talents for Macao, UM has developed into an academic hub with distinctive features, high degree of internationalisation and global influence.

We are proud of our development and achievements in various fields, including social sciences. At the same time, we are always committed to achieving academic excellence according to the development needs of the country and the Macao SAR.

Against this background, UM offers the first Chinese-medium professional doctorate programme in public administration. Through joint efforts, we are confident that our DPA programme will cultivate versatile talents and high-calibre leaders in public administration for Macao, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and beyond.

Professor Yonghua SONG

Rector

University of Macau

Welcome to the Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) programme at the University of Macau.

The DPA programme of UM aims to cultivate senior public administration officials, public policy researchers, and public administration teaching staff for the Greater China region, especially the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, so as to improve the public governance of Macau and the Greater China region. Currently, there is no DPA programme in Macau and the Mainland. This programme is the nation’s first Chinese-medium professional doctoral programme in public administration. Different from the research-oriented Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration, DPA is practice-oriented, aiming to cultivate talents who are familiar with both theories and practices and capable of solving practical problems in public administration. The Chief Executive of the Macau SAR Government, Mr. Ho Iat Seng, called for the improvement of governance of Macau. The improvement of Macau’s governance relies on cultivating more talents who are committed to public administration reform and public governance. Macau’s geographical location in the Greater Bay Area and its advantages under the “One Country, Two Systems” give UM the opportunity to bring into full play the principle of “One Country” and the strengths of “Two Systems” and train high-level public administration officials, researchers and scholars for the Greater Bay Area and the whole country.

The Faculty of Social Sciences of UM, as the first institution in Macao to offer the master’s programme in public administration, has cultivated several hundred graduates in the past dozen years. Following the trend of the world and meeting the needs of Macau’s social development, the DPA programme of UM will improve both the academic and practical competence of local officials in public administration and cultivate more talents in this field for Macau and the nearby region.

The DPA programme of UM integrates theories and practice and emphasizes on the practical application. Drawing on the experience of neighbouring regions, we will strive to incorporate the cases in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the state-of-the-art theories of public administration into the classroom. We will include relevant subjects of economic management, public relations, government performance management, policy analysis and evaluation, e-governance and administration, public crisis management, administrative system reform, and cross-regional innovative cooperation and joint administration to enrich students’ knowledge system and practical competence. Boasting an excellent team of professors and instructors with diversified background from both UM and its partners, this programme will optimise the teaching content according to the objectives and provides distance education of some elective courses through the UM MOOC platform. The innovative mode of cultivation and the digital teaching management offer students a learning environment that is not restricted by time, place, and space.

Professor Richard Weixing HU

Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences

University of Macau