The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) last week announced a US$2 million donation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some of which is to establish a program dedicated to the study of Taiwan in a global context.
Of the money given to UCLA’s Asia Pacific Center, US$800,000 would be used to create a program on “Taiwan in the World,” while the remaining US$1.2 million would go toward establishing an endowment fund to help permanently support the Taiwan Studies Program, the university said in a news release.
The program would “promote Taiwan studies in a global context and train a new generation of scholars and professionals in Taiwanese society, history and culture,” the university said.
Students in the program would gain bilingual proficiency in English and Mandarin, including the ability to read and write traditional Chinese characters, it said.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Director-General Louis Huang (黃敏境) said that hopefully the initiative would become a benchmark for Taiwan-US cooperation in higher education, while cultivating students with a “global vision” for the countries.
UCLA’s Taiwan Studies Program, which it launched in 2014 with funding from the Ministry of Education, has enough support to see it through 2024, the university said.
Last week’s donation would also help the Taiwan Studies Program continue to grow, the university said.
The program maintains close academic ties with National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University and National Taiwan Normal University.
The Asia Pacific Center, of which the program is a part, offers a range of Taiwan-related exchanges, conferences and grants, UCLA said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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