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Universities should `build bridges': official

Taiwanese higher education institutions should seek to "build bridges" with universities overseas as a means to stay relevant in an era of globalization, Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin (呂木琳) said yesterday.

Lu was speaking yesterday at a Ming Chuan University conference marking the school's 50th anniversary.

Titled Internationalizing Education: Vision, Fusion and Solution, the conference brought together academics from more than 20 overseas universities that share sister-school relations with Ming Chuan to discuss how to "globalize" higher education.

"With universities increasingly facing competition for students and resources in the age of globalization, they must build bridges between one another to stay viable," Lu said, referring to both international student and teacher exchange programs and further collaboration among academics worldwide.

The purpose of yesterday's conference, said Ming Chuan University president Lee Chuan (李銓), was to provide a forum for Ming Chuan and its sister schools to share their experiences in "globalizing."

For Beverley Byers-Pevitts, the president of the US' Park University, "globalizing" her school means running the US' most extensive long-distance education program for a non-profit university and expanding its international student and teacher exchange programs by fostering relationships like the one it enjoys with Ming Chuan, its sister school in Taiwan.

"We have 590 international students from 109 different countries studying at Park," Byers-Pevitts told the Taipei Times, adding that Park benefited greatly, both financially and academically, by attracting many talented foreign students.

Park's long-distance, or Internet-based, education program, meanwhile, currently boasts "50,000 student enrollments" in a wide variety of courses, she said.

Such an online presence, she added, is Park's way of capitalizing on the digitalization of education -- a global trend, she said.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) delivered the keynote speech at the conference, reiterating her plans to establish the "Pacific University League" under the Democratic Pacific Union.

The Democratic Pacific Union, brainchild of the vice president, was established in 2005 as a non-government organization to promote democracy and information-sharing on a range of issues among 28 Asia-Pacific nations.

The Pacific University League, she said, would "provide member universities with a common forum for multilateral exchange programs."

The vice president didn't elaborate or mention when the league would be formed.

"More and more universities are creating joint programs with their counterparts in different countries. Beyond individual bilateral efforts from each university, however, we should also consider a multilateral approach," she said.
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