The University of Taipei (UT) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an Indian college as part of a bid to become one of the top 500 colleges in the world, university president Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said.
In the memorandum, UT and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi agreed to collaborate on teaching and learning resource exchanges, faculty and student research exchanges and joint research projects.
UT also agreed to offer 10 scholarships of up to NT$90,000 per year for students from the institute for airfares, accommodation and living expenses.
Screen grab from the University of Taipei Web site
The institute is to provide free board and a monthly allowance of 5,000 rupees (US$79) to exchange students from UT.
Delhi Bodh Raj Mehta, dean of the institute’s research and development department, said he was optimistic about the partnership, adding that his school and UT are about the same size and are facing some of the same challenges.
Meanwhile, at a swearing-in ceremony for her second term as UT president, Tai said that by improving teaching and research quality and raising the school’s international profile, it has been able to overcome some of the challenges it has faced.
She cited as an example the challenges brought on by the merging of the Taipei Municipal University of Education and the Taipei Physical Education College in August 2013 to create UT.
During her first four-year term, she said the university also faced higher-education budget cuts and falling enrollment nationwide as a result of the nation’s low birth rate.
Nonetheless, its enrollment rate has remained among the top three in the nation, and its sister-school cooperation programs have doubled, Tai said.
She said she was committed to improving UT’s ranking to the top 500 worldwide as a high global ranking is crucial to attracting more international students.
As part of the plan, the university is building links with overseas schools such as the Indian institute and is to expand its academic exchanges with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Illinois State University, she said.
UT, which is about 120 years old, is ranked 67th in Taiwan and 2,934th globally, according to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, a university lineup released by Cybermetrics Lab, a research group affiliated with the biggest public research organization in Spain.
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