STATEMENT
STATEMENT
25
Jun
25/06/2021
Response to the statement released by Mr José Pereira Coutinho’s Office by the Rector of USJ, Prof. Stephen Morgan
“The statements made to the press by Mr. José Pereira Coutinho concerning the termination of the contracts of three Macao resident staff misrepresent entirely what he was told by the University of Saint Joseph (USJ). Far from replacing local staff with non-local staff, in reorganising the teaching of English at USJ, the University has been able to increase the proportion of local resident staff and reduce the number of blue card holders in our English Language Centre. Mr Coutinho was told this only yesterday (24 June 2021). It is to be regretted that he has today chosen knowingly to say exactly the opposite.
The proportion of local academic staff has risen from 70%, when I became Rector in May 2020, to 76% now. Our admin staff remain 97% local residents. Furthermore, the proportion of total staff who are local residents has risen from 84% to 88%.
USJ is committed to the employment of resident staff wherever possible and only employs blue card holders when the specific skills needed are not available in Macao or if it is necessary for us to preserve our character as an international university which represents a real example of the one platform for connecting China and Portuguese-speaking countries and one base for harmonious inter-cultural exchange between East and West. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue.”
Rector of the University of Saint Joseph
Prof. Stephen Morgan
25 June 2021
