Macau casino concessionaire Wynn Macau Ltd and the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) have initiated an international student recruitment programme that provides scholarships for overseas students enrolled in specific master’s degree programs at MUST.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed on Tuesday by Linda Chen, president and executive director of Wynn Resorts (Macau) SA – the local unit of Wynn Macau Ltd – and Joseph Lee, vice-chancellor and president of MUST, according to a Wednesday press release.
Kong Chi Meng, director of Macau’s Education and Youth Development Bureau, attended the signing ceremony.
Ms Chen said in a speech that the collaboration was not only aligned with the Macau government’s “‘1+4’ adequate economic diversification drive,” but also marked “a strategic breakthrough in the in-depth industry-academia integration and the building of an ecosystem for cultivating new talent”.
“By establishing this special scholarship mechanism, both parties hope to focus on cultivating international talent in innovation and intelligence, providing a strategic talent reserve for Macau to develop into a “world-class exchange platform for innovative talent where diverse cultures thrive in harmony,” she added, as cited in the announcement.
Wynn Macau Ltd runs the Wynn Macau casino resort on the city’s peninsula and Wynn Palace on Cotai.
The release also quoted Mr Lee as saying: “The establishment of this scholarship embodies the industry’s commitment to ‘developing Macau through education,’ and the covered scope directly corresponds to the core areas of Macau’s ‘1+4’ diversification strategy.”
Under the agreement, the Wynn group will finance around 30 scholarships for international post-graduates studying at MUST each academic year, with each qualified student receiving MOP50,000 (US$6,198) for a period of two academic years.
“Wynn is establishing these scholarships to support Macau tertiary institutions in nurturing talent in various disciplines … and to promote knowledge transfer and intellectual exchange on an international scale,” stated the company. It said such effort would contribute “to the city’s development policies and talent recruitment programmes”.
