The Faculty of Finance of CityU Macau has enrolled a record number of students in the 2022-2023 academic year, with 29 doctoral students and 70 master’s students admitted. In order to help the new students integrate into the Faculty as soon as possible, and to learn more about the campus, study and life, the Faculty held an orientation session for new postgraduate students on September 21 at the Cultural Centre, attended by Dean Adrian Cheung, Associate Dean Eva Khong, Course Coordinator of Postgraduate Program Yonghong Zhou, Course Coordinator of BAE Program Derick Lin and teachers of the Faculty.

To begin with, Dean Adrian Cheung welcomed the new postgraduate students and gave a brief introduction to the development of the Faculty. He mentioned that the Faculty has been in the process of planning and applying for a number of new master’s programs, including FinTech and Wealth Management, and has been discussing collaboration with universities in China and overseas to provide opportunities for our master’s graduates to pursue a second master’s degree. The Faculty’s curriculum focuses on pragmatism and innovation, and will continue to improve its academic level and teaching quality in the future, so as to provide students with the best learning environment and teaching resources. He hoped that students can integrate into and participate in the development of the Faculty. He also introduced the academic staff and administrative staff of the Faculty one by one, so that the students can be more familiar with the academic research areas and administrative work scope of them.

Associate Dean Eva Khong warmly welcomed the new students and pointed out that the Faculty of Finance of CityU Macau is currently the only faculty in Macau with a finance focus in a higher education institution. The Faculty is characterized by a teaching model that combines enterprise, learning and research. She also introduced various activities, such as academic seminars, financial workshops, salons, visits, etc., showing that the Faculty takes experiential learning as its teaching core. The Faculty cooperates with a lot of financial enterprises in the industry, including Hengqin Innovative Financial Research Institute and GF Securities, and encourages students to visit enterprises during the winter and summer vacations, so as to grasp the practical application knowledge of finance as early as possible, which is conducive to joining the industry. It is hoped that students can make good use of the platform provided by the Faculty to create more possibilities for future development.

Professor Yonghong Zhou, Course Coordinator of Graduate Program, introduced the master’s and doctoral courses in finance to the students in detail, which the course took experiential learning as the teaching core and financial simulation as the financial practice, focused on the study of international financial frontier theories, improved students’ financial research and practical ability, aimed at cultivating financial talents in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and also mentioned that “featured/modern finance” is an important direction to promote the appropriate diversification of Macao’s economy, an important path to coordinate the construction of the Greater Bay Area, and also an important key point to strengthen Macao as a “Sino Portuguese financial service platform”. He then introduced the credits and dissertation requirements of the master’s and doctoral programs, and mentioned other learning opportunities and the existing resources and equipment of the Faculty, encouraging students to make good use of the software facilities of the financial laboratory and participate in more academic seminars held by the Faculty to improve the sense of leaning experience, understand the current development of the industry and the Greater Bay Area, and master the mainstream analysis methods and skills.

Later, Dr. Derick Lin, Course Coordinator of BAE Program, also welcomed the new students and shared his experience and understanding of learning at the postgraduate level with the students. It is necessary to develop a correct outlook on the world, life and methodology, which will help to conceive suggestions and solutions for different opportunities and challenges in future financial development. In addition, in terms of research, it is necessary to have an international perspective and a sense of home and the country. At the same time, students are expected to learn more about Macao. Macao has a unique position and role of “one center, one platform, and one base” in the development planning of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is recommended that students should consider local hot issues in research and put forward their own opinions for the economic development of Macao.

During the Q&A session, students actively posed questions about the master’s and doctoral programs, and the Dean and teachers answered in detail. Through this orientation, new postgraduate students will be more familiar with the structure and operation of the University and the Faculty, and the distance between teachers and students will be shortened. Students are expected to grasp the time on campus and work hard for their own learning careers. Associate Professor Yinggui Wang, Associate Professor Gavin Wu, Associate Professor Shiyan Lou, Assistant Professor Liu Lu, Assistant Professor Lifei Xue, Assistant Professor Lamont Yu, Assistant Professor Bo Yu, Assistant Professor Di Li, Assistant Professor Lin Deng and Lecturer Simon Sou also attended the orientation.