Presided over by Ms Chan Hoi Fan, Acting Chief Executive of Macao S.A.R., Dr. Alexis Tam, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Professor Lei Heong Iok, President of Macao Polytechnic Institute, the Graduation Ceremony for Academic Year 2014-2015 of Macao Polytechnic Institute was held on 16 June 2015 in the MPI Multisport Pavilion with more than six hundred bachelor and higher diploma graduates in attendance. Representatives from the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao S.A.R., the Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in Macau SAR, several members of the Legislative Assembly, department heads from different government departments, executives from several entertainment enterprises, secondary school principals, parents and friends also attended the ceremony.

Ms Chan expressed her view that “paying close attention to Macao’s education means paying close attention to Macao’s future” since education is such an important element for the overall health of Macao in the future. This allows Macao’s citizens to live with a sense of wellbeing and dignity and leads to the community being more competitive and comprehensive. The Macao government maintains its administrative philosophy of “building up Macao with education and talents”, and always places priority on education. At the same time the government continuously exerts its efforts to strengthen the construction of sound systems, to improve laws and regulations with regard to higher education, and to take its long-term development very seriously. The government will increase and better allocate the resources being put into higher education, to continue the optimization of the teaching environment and facilities, and support the continuous training of academic staff to form a high-quality and efficient team to increase overall standards in the tertiary sector.

Professor Lei Heong Iok told the audience that MPI has consistently given top priority to its social responsibility as a tertiary institution. Since the return of Macao to the motherland, MPI has been firmly upholding its educational principles of “taking root in Macao and serving the society”. For example, in meeting the ever-changing demands of the community MPI has subsequently launched a whole array of programmes in Chinese-English Translation & Interpretation, Chinese-Portuguese Translation & Interpretation, Sino-Lusophone Trade Relations, E-Commerce, Gaming Industry Management, Physical Education, Arts Education and Nursing. Already many of our graduates from these programmes have contributed strongly to Macao with their practical skills and much sought after expertise. As a result the number of applications for admission to MPI has ranked No.1 among all higher education institutions in Macao for 9 consecutive years. One notable outcome from the institutional review exercise indicated that employers’ satisfaction level with MPI graduates’ performance exceeds 90%.

Indeed, during this academic year, MPI students have achieved many accomplishments which are testimony to the high quality of their education. For example, an MPI student, Cheong Wai Hang, won the world championship in the (ACA) global competition in multimedia software design; another student, Wang Kun, has respectively won the Championship, 1st and 2nd runner-up places in international Marathons in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China; Huang Junhua and his other team members won a silver medal in martial arts in the Asian Games.

Also, MPI’s dragonboat team won second prize in the City Cup International Dragonboat Championships in Taiwan, while the MPI basketball team has won the championship in the Macao-wide Basketball Matches in the men’s category and second place in the women’s category. Fan Yubo won second prize in the 12th University of Macao Portuguese Speech Contest, and Mr. Filipe Miguel das Dores was awarded a prize from the Royal Watercolour Society in the U.K. Finally three MPI students, Li Yu, Huang Junhua and Cheong Wai Hang, have received the most applaudable ‘Certificate of Merits’ from the Macao SAR government. On top of all these commendable achievements, MPI will strive to work closely with the SAR government in implementing its policies by supplying yet more capable talents to its workforce.

Cheong Wai Hang, representative of the 2014-2015 graduates, also delivered a speech during the ceremony. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Institute and his fellow students for their support and wished that the Institute would continue to thrive and every graduate achieve their best in the future.

Graduates and their parents commented that the graduation ceremony was very meaningful for them. They will do their best to contribute to the community with their practical skills as well as what they have learnt at MPI over the past few years.

Ms Chan Hoi Fan, Acting Chief Executive of Macao S.A.R., Dr. Alexis Tam, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Professor Lei Heong Iok, President of Macao Polytechnic Institute attended the MPI Graduation Ceremony for the Academic Year 2014-2015	The Acting Chief Executive of Macao S.A.R delivered her speech at the Graduation Ceremony
President Lei delivered his speech at the Graduation Ceremony	Cheong Wai Hang expressed his gratitude to his alma mater
The Acting Chief Executive presented a graduation certificate to an outstanding student	Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture presented a graduation certificate to an outstanding student
“Gratitude to MPI! Bright future for us all!”	Students from the School of Arts, MPI performed on the stage