A ground-breaking ceremony signaled the start of construction of a new campus of the University of Macau in Hengqin, Guangdong province, on December 9.

The campus, located in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone, represents another step in the integration of the two regions. Covering an area of 336,000 square meters, the new campus will be half of the current size of the university. It is expected to open in 2028.

The new campus will establish four new schools, including medical science, information technology, design/engineering and a new advanced research institute that will become an industry-university research platform.

Song Yonghua, rector of the University of Macau, said that unlike other overseas colleges and universities on the Chinese mainland, the campus in Hengqin and the existing campus will have integrated management, which he said is a unique advantage of "one country, two systems".

"The new campus plans to enroll 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, with 500 professors and other teachers to be hired in the coming years," Song said.

With the new campus in Hengqin, the number of students enrolled in the university will total more than 25,000, of which more than half will be master's or doctoral students, he said.

The school will focus on cultivating more outstanding talent, with interdisciplinary integration in medical science, microelectronics, creative design and financial technology to help build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into an education leader, he added.