The government’s New Southbound Policy aims to establish people-to-people exchanges with ASEAN members, South Asian countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand, and the Ministry of Education has set up resource centers to pursue academic exchanges and cooperation with nations in its scope.
According to the ministry’s Web site, on its instruction, seven Taiwanese universities have set up “resource centers” for economic and industry-academic cooperation that should cover Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, India and Thailand.
Each center targets a specific country, except for the one established by National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, which targets Malaysia, as well as Singapore.
In addition to the centers, Deputy Minister of Education Yao Leeh-ter (姚立德) said that the ministry has also established academic coalitions for cooperation and exchanges with targeted nations in engineering, medicine, business management, agriculture, education and the humanities.
National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀), whose school in Kaohsiung is in charge of the resource center for the Philippines, said Philippine universities are highly interested in the Kaohsiung-based school’s colleges of engineering, science and marine sciences.
The geographical proximity of Kaohsiung to Manila is also conducive to academic exchanges between the two sides, Cheng said.
“It only takes 90 minutes to fly to Manila from Kaohsiung, which is even faster than taking a high-speed train from here to Taipei,” he added.
Except in Malaysia, about half of all teaching staff at universities in the targeted nations do not hold doctoral degrees, the university said, adding that it has been admitting lecturers from the Philippines who want to pursue PhDs in Taiwan.
Teachers from NSYSU’s College of Engineering have also set up a workshop in the Philippines to provide professional training for local lecturers, the school said.
National Chi Nan University president Olivier Su (蘇玉龍), whose university oversees the resource center for Myanmar, said its Entrance Committee for Overseas Chinese Students has more than two decades of experience interacting with schools in Myanmar.
“We have also signed cooperation agreements with several Burmese universities, establishing a branch office and exchange programs, and inviting guest lecturers and postdoctoral fellows,” Su said.
National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) has strong expertise in agriculture and has always maintained a close cooperative relationship with Thai universities, said Chen Mu-min (陳牧民), chairman of the Graduate Institute of International Politics, which is responsible for academic exchanges with Thailand.
As an example, Chen cited NCHU cooperating with the Thailand Royal Project Foundation to plant high-value vegetables and tea in areas that used to grow opium poppies in northern Thailand, to improve the livelihood of local farmers.
The university has also signed a memorandum of cooperation with the oldest university in Sri Lanka, the University of Peradeniya, and conducted academic exchanges with universities in India, Bhutan and Nepal, Chen said.
Chen was on a visit to Assam state, India, and Bhutan when interviewed, and is part of the first Taiwanese academic team to visit the Royal University of Bhutan’s College of Natural Resources.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS