Based on face-to-face interviews with faculty members and students in several Hong Kong higher learning institutions and Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI), this paper presents a comparative analysis of the opportunities and challenges relating to faculty development between higher educational institutions which have newly upgraded to university status and those which are still in the process of upgrading from career-oriented, special disciplinebased, teaching-focused colleges to more comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, researchoriented universities. In view of the current faculty establishment of MPI, some suggestions are made regarding MPI’s policy on faculty development in its endeavor to upgrade to university status.