The Historical Review and Future Outlook of Public Administration Degree Programs in Macao

What is it about?

For more than 40 years, higher education institutions in Macao have offered public administration programs, and among Macao's 10 higher education institutions, the majority of these programs are held in three, namely the University of Macau (UM), Macau Polytechnic Institute (MPI), and Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). The article analyzes the text of the Official Bulletin of the Macao SAR Government and compares the history of public administration education in Macao between undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels. This historical review will help promote better development of the discipline. Finally, based on reflective analysis, the article puts forward prospects for the future of the discipline in Macao, such as further improving Macao's higher education public administration programs, exploring the interdisciplinary elements of these programs, expanding and diversifying the enrollment of students in these programs, specifically by increasing master and doctoral programs for Mainland Chinese students, and strengthening program cooperation in the Greater Bay Area.

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Why is it important?

The contribution of this article is manifested in two aspects. Firstly, the article reviews the historical origins of the public administration degree programs in Macao and, secondly, makes recommendations on how these programs can improve in the future. Specifically, three institutions of higher education in Macao offer public administration programs, namely the University of Macau, Macau Polytechnic Institute, and Macau University of Science and Technology. Each of these three schools offers degree programs at the graduate and postgraduate level, with different degree offerings at different schools. This article has compared the history of these three programs and reflectively analyzed the degree offerings at the three schools, before finally making recommendations for the future improvement of these programs. What happen in public administration degree programs in Macao since 1981 have been described and analyzed briefly above. As for what these changes mean and reveal, it is open to further observe, review and discuss for the people who are interested in public administration degree programs in Macao.

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