This year’s Taiwan-US International Education Administrators (IEA) Roundtable Networking took place in Taipei yesterday, held jointly by the Foundation for International Cooperation in High Education of Taiwan (FICHET) and the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange.
Nearly 70 representatives from 40 Taiwanese and 16 American universities attended, seeking to deepen higher-education ties between both countries and promote further collaboration.
Lee Yu-jiuan (李毓娟), director general of the Ministry of Education’s Department of International and Cross-strait Education, said that over the decades, there have been more than 2,000 exchanges between Taiwanese and US higher-education institutions.
Photo coutersy of the Foundation for International Cooperation in High Education of Taiwan
More than 20,000 Taiwanese study in the US, while 4,000 Americans study in Taiwan, she said.
The 2020 US-Taiwan Education Initiative fostered new collaborations in language education, and more than 60 percent of American students in Taiwan are in Mandarin language programs, she added.
The Ministry of Education contributed by sending 70 Mandarin teachers and teaching assistants to the US last year, she added.
The US is an important partner for Taiwan’s higher education, FICHET chairperson Wu Cheng-chih (吳正己) said.
The US-Taiwan Education Initiative has broadened exchanges among academics and students, enhanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics collaboration, and expanded support for language programs, Wu said.
These efforts have already yielded results, he added.
The Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, also known as Fulbright Taiwan, has been a key part of efforts to encourage US education delegations to Taiwan and promote people-to-people exchanges, he said.
Fulbright Taiwan promotes bilateral engagement through various initiatives, such as its internship program, which supports Taiwanese students and academics studying in the US, Fulbright Taiwan Executive Director Randall Nadeau said.
The foundation also organizes lectures, events related to Taiwan-US ties, short-term programs and bilateral visits, he said.
First Education Secretary Canny Yi-Ken Liao (廖苡?) from the Ministry of Education’s Department of International and Cross-Strait Education, spoke about the status of educational cooperation initiatives.
From the US, Anize Appel, dean of the Center for Global Education at Pennsylvania’s Moravian University, and Christina Kinney, director of International Education and Global Engagement at Pennsylvania’s Kutztown University, talked about their own experiences and perspectives of international collaborations and the distinctive qualities of US higher education.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS