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.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS