Margarida Mano said that the University of Luanda will host the Forges annual meeting in two years' time, with the next conference being hosted by the Lusophone University of Guinea-Bissau.
The former Portuguese Minister of Education recalled that in 2025 Portuguese-speaking higher education institutions will meet in Timor-Leste.
The 15th edition of the Forges conference will be a joint organization of the National University Timor Lorosa'e, the Timorese Catholic University São João Paulo II and the University of Díli.
During the opening of the 14th conference, Mano highlighted the 170 registrations from eight Portuguese-speaking countries and regions, with 80 people traveling to Macau to attend 116 communications distributed in 24 sessions over three days.
The conference has the support of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.
At a time when "international solidarity is tested", Mano highlighted that Forges decided this year not to charge any registration fees to universities and polytechnics in Rio Grande do Sul.
The conference in the semi-autonomous Chinese region will feature 30 communications from nine higher education institutions in this state in the extreme south of Brazil, said the president of Forges.
Rio Grande do Sul was affected by strong storms in April and May, which caused at least 182 deaths, left thousands of people homeless and affected at least 2.3 million inhabitants in 478 cities.
Mano highlighted that this is the third time that the Macau Polytechnic University (UPM) hosts the conference of Portuguese-speaking higher education institutions, after 2012 and 2021.
Also at the opening session, the rector of UPM said that the institution wants to further strengthen collaboration with Portuguese-speaking universities and polytechnics.
Marcus Im Sio Kei gave as an example the exchange of students and teachers, as well as the launch of study programs and joint research laboratories.
In June, the rector of the University of Coimbra told Lusa, during a visit to Macau, that the Portuguese institution and UPM had launched a double doctorate in information technologies.
The doctorate was created last academic year and "is starting to show its first results", with 18 students, "divided between Portuguese and Chinese", said Amílcar Falcão.
In May 2023, UPM announced an agreement to promote joint scientific and technological research projects with Forges, which has 78 higher education institutions from Portuguese-speaking countries.
The university highlighted that the agreement also aims to support the Alliance for Portuguese Language Teaching in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
