Visit by the University of Virginia to NCCU, Creating New Heights in Chinese Language Education and Research in the Regional Development
[Reported by See Kai]
On 29 May 2023, NCCU hosted a delegation led by Stephen D. Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs from the University of Virginia (UVA). The delegation comprised Prof. Harry Harding, University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy (who is also NCCU’s Yushan Scholar), as well as 2 professors from UVA’s Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Prof. Hsin-hsin Liang and Prof. Ran Zhao. The attendees from NCCU included President Tsai-yen Li, Prof. Ching-Ping Tang,Vice-President for International Cooperation, Prof. Wen-Ling Tu, Dean of International College of Innovation, Prof. Ping-Yin Kuan , Prof. Yeh-Chung Lu, Chair of the Department of Diplomacy and Prof. Yang Hao, Director of Chinese Language Centre. The meeting was the first between the two universities since the lifting of the travel restrictions after the pandemic. They exchanged views on Chinese language teaching and research on regional developments, and discussed potential areas to further deepen the cooperation between NCCU and UVA.
Presently, NCCU and UVA share a multi-faceted cooperation. Besides signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Student Exchange Agreement in 2021, NCCU has selected UVA as its partner university under the Taiwan Ministry of Education’s Huayu Best Programme to facilitate UVA students to study Chinese at NCCU. As part of NCCU’s efforts to nurture international teaching expertise in Chinese, NCCU has sent two teaching staff to UVA to teach Chinese. This summer, six students from UVA will also spend 2.5 months at NCCU to learn Chinese. Besides formal language lessons, the students will also have the opportunity to interact with students from neighboring Shenkeng Elementary School in New Taipei City. Stephen D. Mull expressed high praises and expectations of the Chinese language teaching programme of NCCU. He was pleased that students from UVA were finally able to come to NCCU for the language programme after the pandemic, and strongly believes that the students would have a fulfilling and unforgettable experience in Taiwan. He looks forward to the students sharing their experiences with the UVA community, and in turn attracting more UVA students to NCCU in the future.
During the visit, the delegation also visited the International College of Innovation at NCCU, as well as learnt about NCCU’s strengths and resources in innovation incubation and the inter-disciplinary research of the mind, brain and learning (MBL). In the post-meeting interview, Stephen D. Mull shared that there were many reasons why UVA chose NCCU as its first and only partner university in Taiwan. In addition to NCCU’s academic strengths, Taiwan's thriving democracy, its strong economic and trade performance, and rich history and culture provide an excellent living and learning environment for international students. With the United States strengthening its exchanges with the Indo-Pacific and Taiwan during recent years, the international cooperation between NCCU and UVA will allow UVA’s students to deepen their understanding of the regions’ developments and issues through their studies at NCCU.
To date, NCCU has established partnerships with close to 500 universities globally, including more than 80 schools in North America . Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the US (1743-1826), UVA ranks among the top three public universities in the US and is regarded as one of the public Ivies. The university has twelve schools and colleges and a student population of approximately 26,000, with distinguished alumni in fields such as politics, business, space exploration, medicine and scientific research. Noting the shared interests and complementary strengths between NCCU and UVA, Stephen D. Mull hopes to leverage NCCU’s strengths in innovation incubation, MBL research, digital technology and big data. Through fostering deeper cooperation and exchanges, he hopes that this will have a positive impact on the academic development of both universities.
