National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) yesterday hosted its first international alumni reunion luncheon on campus in Taipei, with more than 60 foreign alumni from 32 countries participating in the event and sharing their career experiences in Taiwan after graduation.
The university’s Alumni Center said 3,397 international alumni from 87 countries graduated from the university from 2006 to 2022.
The university offers more than 800 English-medium courses and more than 60 cross-cultural activities each year, the center said.
Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Normal University’s Center of Public Affairs
In his welcoming remarks, university president Wu Cheng-chih (吳正己) said he is very excited to participate in the university’s first international alumni reunion.
The university is the largest Chinese-as-a-foreign-language (CFL) teaching institution in Taiwan, welcoming more than 8,000 CFL learners annually, with notable alumni including former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and former Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Wu said.
Alumni Center executive director Kang Min-ping (康敏平), a professor in the university’s Center of Public Affairs, said the alumni center has for years been focused on building connections that go beyond borders and creating a sense of community.
“International degree students make up about 12 percent of the university’s students,” she said. “Through events like the international alumni reunion, NTNU aims to offer employment guidance, encourage foreign students to stay in Taiwan after graduation and create a platform for alumni to share their experiences with each other.”
Aleksandra Lanskikh, a foreign university alumna who received her graduate degree last year and works at the Alumni Center, said while foreign students receive support from the university’s Office of International Affairs, there was no association for foreign alumni.
Lanskikh said she felt motivated to help organize the event for foreign alumni such as herself.
The event included speeches by alumni working in Taiwan, showing participants some career options, she added.
Jenna Liu, a Vietnamese alumna who studied Chinese, gave a speech sharing her experience of landing a full-time job as a marketing specialist in Taiwan.
Liu gave suggestions on resume preparation, job interviews and self-development.
Another alumnus, David Kao (高偉豪), who graduated from the university’s Department of English and works as head of program planning team at state-funded English-language streaming service TaiwanPlus, shared some of his work experience.
Kao said that besides language abilities, showing respect for local culture and understanding it better is helpful in communicating with coworkers more effectively and blending into the workplace.
To stay in Taiwan, foreign alumni must receive a work permit within a year of graduation, the Alumni Center said.
Many foreign alumni face challenges in finding a job in Taiwan due to inadequate understanding of local recruitment culture and regulations, it said.
The reunion event aims to serve as a platform to help them in their career, the center said.
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