The 9^th Higher Education International Conference on The New Developments of Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance, opened on 22 November morning at MPI. The opening ceremony was officiated by Professor Jianxin Zhang, President of the Asia-Pacific Quality Network, Professor José Sarsfield Cabral, Member of the Board, Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Portugal, Professor Luís Filipe Menezes, Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra, Portugal together with Professor Lei Heong Iok, President of MPI. In his opening address, Professor Lei Heong Iok stated that the conference is in its ninth year and provides a valuable platform for participants locally and from abroad to discuss emerging and evolving notions of teaching and learning quality assurance. Professor Lei added that MPI is constantly at the forefront of quality assurance and academic reviews in Macao higher education. MPI was awarded the APQN’s Best/Model Internal Quality Assurance Award in 2015 and again in 2017. MPI will continue to fulfill its commitment to excellence in teaching, academic development and research, and to create a conducive learning environment for its students

Professor Jianxin Zhang, President of the Asia-Pacific Quality Network, congratulated the success of this conference on behalf of the Board members and 204 members from 40 countries and territories of the Asia-Pacific region. Professor Zhang said MPI again was awarded the “APQN’s Best Model of Internal QA Award” in 2017, which made MPI the most outstanding example among over 100 APQN institutional members. APQN has been organising the conference jointly with MPI for three consecutive years, which can help to promote high quality of teaching and learning in higher education and deliver many by-products related to “teaching” and “learning”. Professor Zhang welcomed the participants to have a stimulating exchange of experience and theoretical discussions and ideas around the theme of “quality assurance of teaching and learning” on this conference platform of “global vision” and “localised action”.

In the keynote sessions, Professor José Sarsfield Cabral introduced the New Developments of Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance in Higher Education; Professor Jianxin Zhang discussed how Programme Evaluation Promotes Teaching-Learning Quality in her detailed analysis of Programme Evaluation of Yunnan Higher Vocational Colleges; Ms. Dorte Kristoffersen explained the Quality Assurance Responsiveness in an evolving higher education environment; while Professor Luís Filipe Menezes presented the Pedagogical Quality Management Process at the University of Coimbra. The participants had an enthusiastic exchange of academic research and found this sharing of insights and experience to be very beneficial.

MPI strives to continuously improve its level of teaching and learning. Since 2009, MPI has organised the Higher Education International Conference on Quality Assurance annually to serve as one of the academic development and training initiatives for its academic staff and to discuss the latest topics in higher education and promote international exchange and collaboration among experts and scholars from local institutions as well as overseas countries/regions. This year’s conference was held over 2 days with more than 30 presenters coming from countries and regions such as Portugal, Ireland, Japan, Mauritius, Vietnam, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. A total of around 100 people participated. The conference witnessed a very fruitful exchange of ideas.