The Bachelor of Social Work Programme of the Macao Polytechnic Institute has just successfully passed the Learning Programme Review conducted by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ). It is the first Bachelor Degree Programme that has attained the status of higher education academic review in Macao by HKCAAVQ using the HKCAAVQ Review Methodology. The panel met fifty stakeholders of the BSW Programme including senior management, programme team, teaching staff (PT & PT), fieldwork tutors, external examiner, external advisors, representatives of employers, students, graduates, placement agencies, support department and etc. The international review panel highly appreciates MPI’s quality standard in teaching, academic development and research which help to create a conducive learning environment for students. Following the success of the BSW learning programme review, MPI’s engagement in cultivation of high quality human manpower for the development of Macao will be further intensified.

The BSW Programme became one of the founding academic programmes of the Institute in 1990 with the aim to provide professional education to Macao citizens. The Programme has been very popular and several hundred students apply for admission to the programme every year. It has been the major service provider for social work education in Macao and a great majority of the professional social workers are graduates of the BSW Programme at MPI. The quality of the social work graduates is highly recognised by the social welfare sector.  In order to benchmark the academic standard of the Programme with international standards and with the strong support of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of Macao, MPI commissioned the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) to conduct a Learning Programme Review (LPR) to evaluate the Bachelor of Social Work Programme in late October of 2016. The BSW learning programme review was conducted by an international panel comprising of six members from Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore which was chaired by Professor Poon Wai Yin, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

After the comprehensive learning programme review including documents reviews, site visit to campus and facilities and Panel Meetings,  the Panel concludes that the BSW programme meets the accreditation standards and criteria against eleven criteria and standards in Organisational Management;  Programme Objectives and Learning Outcomes;  Programme Content and Structure; Admission Requirements and Student Selection; Teaching and Learning; Student Assessment; Staffing and Staff Development; Financial and Physical Resources; Quality Assurance; Workplace Attachment and Student Support Services;  Students Records and Information Management.

As a result, HKCAAVQ also concluded that MPI has an established management structure and processes, and also has a quality assurance system to manage and continuously review the operation of the BSW programme. Supported by adequate financial and physical resources, the Programme has clear objectives and learning outcomes, which are aligned with the admission requirements and the approaches used for teaching and learning, and student assessment.  It was demonstrated that the BSW programme is comparable to a Bachelor’s degree programme pitched at the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF) Level 5.

In addition, the Panel recognises that MPI has built a solid academic foundation, has sufficient resources, possesses high quality academic staff, provides conducive teaching and learning environments, and is well-equipped for sustainable development.  Since 2003, MPI has started to enhance our academic quality standards through validations and since 2011, a number of our academic programmes have already been validated. In the future, we will continue our endeavor to ensure all the programmes are academically validated by benchmarking ourselves closely against internationally recognised standards.  We also will continue our commitment to upgrade the academic and quality standard in higher education as well as to cultivate excellent human manpower for the long-term development of Macao.

The review panel met with MPI Social Work Programme's staff members, graduates and their employers

In the media：

• Va Kio Daily News
• Today Macao