The Faculty of Finance of the City University of Macau held the Quality Assurance Committee meeting for the 2022/2023 academic year on 15 August 2023. The meeting was conducted online. The members attending the meeting include: Dr Vincent Huen, Senior Treasurer of SJM Holdings Limited; Mr. Hau Ling Sou, Director of Bank of China Macau Branch; Professor Jun Xie of the South China University of Technology; Professor Desmond Yuen of the University of Macau; Dean Adrian Cheung, Associate Dean Eva Khong, Postgraduate Program Coordinator Yonghong Zhou, BAE Program Coordinator Derick Lin, PhD student representative Yuxiao Qu, Master’s student representative Yiyang Zhou and undergraduate student representative Minmin Gong of Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau.
Dean Adrian Cheung of the Faculty of Finance extended his heartfelt thanks to the Committee members for their support and assistance in the past academic year. He also reported on the Faculty’s management of quality assurance, including the recruitment of academic staff, the development of new programs and the teaching achievements in the past academic year. Associate Dean Eva Khong of the Faculty of Finance then talked about a series of activities conducted in the past academic year to enhance teaching quality, including academic forums, seminars, salons, exchanges and visits, as well as student development programs jointly organized by the Faculty and the industry, all of which were aimed at enabling students to develop in a more diversified way. After that, Professor Yonghong Zhou and Assistant Professor Derick Lin gave a detailed presentation on the teaching and program quality assurance of the Faculty’s doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degree programs, respectively.
Committee members expressed their views on how to improve teaching quality: Dr Vincent Huen said that economics is now closely related to international politics and geopolitics, suggesting the establishment of disciplines covering big data, artificial intelligence, mathematical models, international capital rolling investment and geopolitics related content. Director Hau Ling Sou said that the Faculty's curriculum had a solid theoretical foundation, and if it could incorporate knowledge training on financial tools commonly used in the industry, students would be better equipped with practical skills in the workplace and research in the future. Professor Jun Xie believes that finance is mainly a quantitative course, and information is updated very quickly. He suggested that the Faculty expand its database to include databases related to listed companies of enterprises, financial market transactions and technology finance. Professor Desmond Yuen suggested that in order to improve the graduation progress of PhD students and the quality of their academic research, a committee could be set up to regularly monitor the thesis preparation of students.
The representatives of the doctoral, master and undergraduate students of the Faculty gave different feedback: Yuxiao Qu said that through the study of the doctoral program, students have laid a good financial theory foundation, and found the field and direction they want to study. Through the opportunity to exchange with experts and scholars in the industry, they have learned about the current frontier and progress in financial technology, green finance and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau cross-border finance. Yiyang Zhou said that the students have explored the theoretical knowledge of finance in depth, and the content of the master's program is close to the needs of academic research or career development, and their analysis, research ability and financial vision have been significantly improved through the teaching mode that integrates scientific research, theory and practice. Minmin Gong said that in the four years of undergraduate study in the Faculty of Finance, the teachers of the Faculty affected the students' learning attitude, and the students’ attention on their studies cannot be separated from the teachers' efforts. It is hoped that more learning opportunities will be created in the future to help students integrate into the workplace.
Dean Cheung concluded the meeting by mentioning that the Faculty of Finance collected views and suggestions from industry experts, experts from academia and student representatives at the annual meetings of the Program Quality Assurance Committee to keep up its efforts for the betterment of quality assurance management of the Faculty and its teaching programs. He thanked the experts, teachers and students for their support of the Faculty. The Faculty would keep records of the suggestions put forward in the meeting and take them into consideration seriously.
