Building Stronger Connections and Collaborations in North America

NTU Executive Vice President Chiapei Chou (周家蓓) visited her alma mater, University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), on July 23, 2019. The visit was joined by Director Jiun-Haw Lee (李君浩) of the Science and Technology Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston.

NTU and UT Austin have had several deliberations on becoming partner universities over the past decade, though without definite conclusions. While at UT Austin, Executive Vice President Chou met with Prof. Sharon Wood, Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering; Prof. Gerald Speitel Jr., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the Cockrell School of Engineering; Prof. Robert Gilbert, Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering; Prof. Carlos Caldas, a department consultant for undergraduate courses; and Dr. Teri Albrecht, Interim Executive Director of Texas Global. They discussed details about signing student exchange agreements, as well as creating programs for UT Austin faculty members to offer collaborative courses at NTU. To mutually benefit their international developments, the two universities also reconsidered signing an agreement to build long-term partnership.

After the meeting, Executive Vice President Chou paid a visit to Dr. Kathleen Aronson, Campaign Development Director at UT Austin, to learn about UT Austin’s fundraising organizational structure and mechanism. Besides acquiring abundant and valuable information, Chou also invited Dr. Aronson to visit NTU in the future for further exchange.

On July 25, Executive Vice President Chou headed for Simon Fraser University (SFU) to meet with Prof. Joy Johnson (Vice-President, Research and International), Prof. Michael Silverman (Associate Dean of Science, Research, Graduate Studies, and Advancement), and Mr. Yusuf Varachia (Director for Global Engagement, Asia) for in-depth discussions on future collaborations. The meeting centered around increasing the number of exchange students, creating a triple degree program, conducting faculty visits, and building research networks between NTU and SFU. The fields available for the triple degree program include multi-disaster relief, population aging, big data, and global finance. The two universities will invite faculty members with common research interests to meet and exchange their views at workshops. Notably, SFU will host the conference of the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) during March 22-26, 2020—the first time the APAIE conference is held in North America. During the meeting, Vice-President Johnson extended her invitation to NTU President Chung-Ming Kuan (管中閔) to join the conference to network and discuss with fellow university leaders the new developments in international education, as well as help promote greater cooperation across institutions and regions.