NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang and University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler forged new ties with the signing of a university-level memorandum of understanding on July 5. President Kaler was on the NTU campus as head of a delegation from the University of Minnesota, which included Ms. Meredith McQuaid, Associate Vice President and Dean for International Programs, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance; Ms. Joan Brzezinski, Executive Director, China Center and Confucius Institute, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance; and Ms. Diane Young, Development Director, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance.

The universities have a long history of partnership. Thirty-two NTU faculty members are University of Minnesota alumni, and the two universities’ schools of management have already signed an MOU. However, both presidents noted that this new universitylevel MOU will provide a platform for strengthening collaboration in areas of mutual interest in the future, research and student exchange programs in particular.

The University of Minnesota boasts 70,000 students as the eighth largest public research university in the United States, and receives eight million dollars annually to devote to research. NTU has over 435 partner institutions in 56 countries, 313 student exchange programs and 996 study abroad students.

Furthermore, NTU has partnered with world-class research institutes to set up the Intel NTU Center, a cancer center with MD Anderson Cancer Center, and an intelligent robotics and automation research center with French institutes. President Kaler remarked that he is eager to partner with a leading research university like NTU to broaden solutions to problems that plague contemporary society.