The 1st Meeting of the Curriculum Quality Assurance Team of the Faculty of Finance in the 2018/2019 Academic Year was successfully held in Room T307, Tai Fung Building, City University of Macau from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, 18 July 2019.

  Vice Rector Kong Fanqing gave a welcome speech and a brief introduction to the City University of Macau and the "Curriculum Quality Assurance" standards. Professor Kong expressed her high hopes for the Faculty of Finance, and summarized from a macro level the history of the University's development and the remarkable achievements made. Especially, she commended the innovative, forward-looking and practical nature of the Faculty of Finance, and affirmed that the opening of the Faculty of Finance was a bright and successful banner of CityU's diversified education. Vice Rector Kong mentioned that there were many internship opportunities in the Faculty of Finance. According to Vice Rector Kong, the small class size and all-English medium education of the financial elite class are quite distinctive. The Faculty of Finance covers the cultivation and education from the undergraduate, master's to doctoral levels. Vice Rector Kong shared with the audience her unremitting exploration and efforts to "constantly improve the school's teaching ability".

  Afterwards, Professor Khong Yueng Wah, associate dean of the Faculty of Finance, reported the curriculum quality assurance management of the Faculty of Finance. Associate Dean Khong prepared a detailed and content-rich PowerPoint presentation, showing the characteristics of the establishment of the Faculty of Finance, the curriculum content and the assurance management of strict control over the curriculum quality from multiple dimensions. She explored the future development trend of the Faculty of Finance from the pragmatic orientation of "production, learning, teaching and research" combination. According to Associate Dean Khong, the financial laboratory will be put into use in September 2019, focusing on big data, AI, and financial technology research. A "Finance Elite Cohort" will be specially organized. Meanwhile, the exchanges and cooperation between teachers and students of the Faculty of Finance and other financial universities/colleges on scientific research and practice will be accelerated. From a strategic perspective, economic research will be integrated into the Faculty of Finance, so that the development of the Faculty of Finance can be supported by interdisciplinary knowledge and talent such as economics and finance, and that the construction of the Faculty of Finance of CityU can be pragmatic, stable and constantly developing.

  Subsequently, Professor Lin Deqin further introduced the education details of the Faculty of Finance. Professor Lin emphasized that the teaching philosophy of the Faculty of Finance is to adhere to practicality, take the Greater Bay Area as the background and focus on quantitative skill development. He pointed out that in the first academic year, 40 students were enrolled in the master's programs and 22 students were enrolled in the doctoral programs, with the overall focus on providing exchange and learning opportunities for the students; in the second academic year, 40 students were enrolled in the master's programs and 20 students were enrolled in the doctoral programs, with the cultivation orientation of keeping pace with international development. According to Professor Lin, in the future, the Faculty of Finance will still stick to such cultivation directions as interactive learning, industry lecturing, and encouragement of teacher-student research cooperation. Associate Professor Lou Shiyan from the Faculty of Finance also shared her experience of leading undergraduate teams of the Faculty of Finance to participate in entrepreneurship competitions and win the first and second prizes. The Curriculum Quality Assurance Team also invited heavyweight guests who are representatives of outstanding experts in scientific research, the academia, and the industry. They expressed their opinions and provided suggestions at the meeting. The first speaker was Senior Treasurer Dr Vincent, W. K. Huen. He proposed to hold a CFA training class at the City University of Macau to attract more students from Hong Kong and Macao, highlighting the talent training of characteristic finance. Deputy General Manager Li Qiang of Bank of China Macau Branch further pointed out that in order to cultivate the talent required by the industry, we should focus on logical thinking ability and theoretical framework-based thinking. Professor Yuan from the University of Macau pointed out that teachers and students might publish more papers in research fields such as characteristic finance, green finance, and green bonds. In the end, Professor Xie Jun from the South China University of Technology mentioned the "Belt and Road Initiative" and teacher-student research cooperation. He encouraged doctoral students to actively participate in scientific research and exercise their writing skills. As for master's students, Professor Xie held that they might do more financial product designs, which is known as the application-oriented cultivation model.

  At the end of the meeting, a student representative of the PhD in Finance program made a speech. She pointed out that the program was the first doctoral cultivation program of the Faculty of Finance. The students actively participated in studies and obtained opportunities from the Faculty of Finance to attend large academic forums and multiple financial workshop lectures and to visit organizations in the financial securities industry. They would also take courses of the Macao-Hengqin Youth Entrepreneurship Valley and the Hengqin Innovative Financial Research Institute for further cultivation. As students of the first PhD in Finance program, they would actively promote the culture of the Faculty of Finance and stay strict with themselves. Lastly, an undergraduate student representative from the Faculty of Finance also spoke actively, sharing study experience and on-campus activities with the audience. The meeting ended happily in active and lively discussions.

  The active exchanges, full discussions and open sharing of the leaders, teachers, students and guests would provide support for the long-term development of the Faculty of Finance of CityU! The multi-level and multi-dimensional exchanges of ideas would produce effective assurance suggestions for the curriculum quality of the Faculty of Finance!