NTU continues to demonstrate its commitment to internationalization by aggressively expanding and strengthening exchange and cooperation agreements with its partner universities. In pursuit of these goals, Vice President for Academic Affairs Ching-hua Lo led delegations of NTU officials to visit several strategically important universities in the United States and Vietnam this fall.

In late September, Vice President Lo led a delegation to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Purdue University and the University of Chicago to observe their campuses and discuss student exchange and special course programs. The delegation included Dean for International Affairs Hsiao-wei Yuan, Associate Dean for International Affairs Shang-hsien Hsieh and Prof. Chun-yen Chang of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.

NTU’s colleges of bioagriculture, electrical engineering and computer sciences, engineering, management and social sciences have closely cooperated and interacted with UIUC for a long time. During the delegation’s visit to the UIUC campus, the two sides worked out the details of NTU Delegations Visit Strategic Universities in US and Vietnam Chancellor Phyllis Wise’s upcoming trip to Taiwan at the invitation of the Ministry of Education, discussed the arrangement of joint symposia, and invited students and faculty to participate so as to come up with more opportunities for cooperation between the two institutions. Additionally, NTU is preparing to sign a student exchange agreement with UIUC and to organize a special landscape and health program to provide further opportunities for NTU students to study abroad.

The delegation arrived in Chicago on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, so the NTU delegation met with the NTU Alumni Association of Greater Chicago to celebrate. The Chicago area is home to over 200 alumni, most of whom are older and hold deep affections for their alma mater; around 40 joined the party. Vice President Lo and Dean Yuan briefed the alumni on the current situation at NTU; the alumni were pleased to hear that NTU is making such great progress.

Shortly after returning from the United States, Vice President Lo again set off in late October to head a delegation of eleven professors to Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) to recruit outstanding Vietnamese students. NTU and HCMUT officials met on numerous occasions before this trip. HCMUT is Vietnam’s leading technology university and all of its courses are taught in English. NTU President Si-chen Lee has created two scholarships especially for HCMUT students because he sees them as excellent candidates for study at NTU.