New campus of University of Macau in Hengqin breaks ground, set to open in 2028

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on December 9 for the new campus of the University of Macau (UM) in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin. The campus is located in the southwest of the island, with a total area of approximately 336,000 square meters, about half the size of UM's current campus, and is expected to commence operations in 2028.

The new campus will host four new faculties: the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Information Technology, the Faculty of Design, and the Faculty of Engineering. Currently, UM operates a temporary teaching facility in Hengqin, focusing on postgraduate training in areas such as big data, artificial intelligence, and microelectronics.

The new campus is expected to accommodate 8,000 students, including 4,000 undergraduates and 4,000 postgraduates, and house 500 faculty members for teaching and research. Upon completion, UM's total student population will exceed 25,000, with more than half being master's or doctoral students.

In 2014, UM relocated its campus from the 0.05 square-kilometer Taipa site to its current 1.09 square-kilometer Hengqin campus, which is equivalent to one-thirtieth of Macao's total area. Ranked 245th in the latest QS World University Rankings, UM now has three national-level key laboratories and a student body of 13,500.