Belgium’s Ghent University on Tuesday praised its partnerships with higher-education institutions in Taiwan during a visit to National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei.
A Ghent University delegation, headed by Luc Taerwe, its East Asia Platform director and former dean of its Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, is in Taiwan as part of a five-day East Asia trip.
The delegation visited NCCU’s Dah Hsian Seetoo Library and met with NCCU staff led by Tang Ching-ping (湯京平), the university’s vice president for international cooperation.
Photo: Oguz Solak, Taipei Times
The delegation from Monday to yesterday visited partner universities in Taipei and Kaohsiung, such as NCCU, National Taiwan University and National Sun Yat-sen University, and held an event for alumni. It is leaving Taiwan today for Hong Kong.
“It’s been since 2015 that we had a rector of our university coming [to Taiwan],” Ghent University East Asia Platform coordinator Inge Mangelschots said. “So, it was also very much a courtesy visit to our two very close partner institutions here, to stress how much we appreciate cooperating with them and how much we aim to further boost the collaboration with them.”
The Belgian university and its Taiwanese partners are similar in their core approaches and values, such as paying close attention to the integration of international students, Mangelschots said.
“There is a lot of like-mindedness that can be found in these partnerships, and that makes it so nice, that makes it so intense and friendly,” she said.
Founded in 1817, Ghent University ranked 115th in Times Higher Education’s rankings this year.
Although Ghent University and NCCU first signed an agreement in 2012, the partnership grew after the Ministry of Education in 2015 invited the Belgian university’s rector to Taiwan to visit five universities, Mangelschots said.
Following that visit, Ghent University in 2016 organized a partnership matchmaking event in Belgium for partners in Taiwan, Japan, China and South Korea, she said, adding that Taiwan attended with a 45-member delegation.
The Belgian university has about 15 partnership agreements with Taiwanese institutions, and joint doctorate programs have spearheaded collaborations with Taiwanese universities over the past few years, she said.
Collaborations with European universities such as Ghent University are important to NCCU, and about 50 to 60 percent of incoming and outgoing student exchanges are with European institutions, said Caroline Tsai (蔡景雰), senior regional manager of NCCU’s Office of International Cooperation.
“Europe is a very popular destination for students,” Tsai said.
The government has been encouraging cooperation with European universities rather than institutions in the US or China over the past few years, she said.
For example, NCCU in November last year set up the Supply Chain Resilience Center in the Czech Republic, she added.
In addition, students are likely to feel more comfortable in European universities than in majority English-speaking countries, Tsai said.
Taiwanese universities often send more students for exchange than they receive, and it sometimes causes problems, Tsai added.
With “European partners, we don’t have this kind of issue,” Tsai said, adding that Ghent University is very welcoming even if it receives more students than it sends.
NCCU is looking for more collaboration with European partners, she added.
“We can expect there will be more and more research collaboration,” Tsai said.
Ghent University is also looking to further develop research collaboration and it is focused on active partners rather than finding new ones, Mangelschots said, adding that when the university renews agreements, it sees if other faculties would like to be included in existing agreements.
“It’s not about the number of our partners, it’s about the added value and activeness of the partnerships that we have,” she said. “So, it’s never a goal for us to take on more, more and more.”
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