MOU to Enhance Bilateral Co-operation between Taiwan and Arkansas
Ms. Sophie Chou, director of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, visited Mr. Shane Broadway, the director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education back in March this year to provide details of the various world quality higher education and Mandarin Chinese immersion programs available in Taiwan. During her visit she put forward a proposal to establish a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of International and Cross-strait Education in the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Sophie Chou’s trip to Arkansas in March culminated in the signing of an MOU on October 7, 2014. The signing ceremony was held internationally, by means of a conference call between Taipei and Arkansas, at 8 p.m. Taipei time and 7 a.m. in Arkansas. The director-general of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education, Dr. Yang Min-Ling and the director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, Mr. Shane Broadway each affixed their signature on their copy of the MOU which had already been signed by the other party. As they did so their signing was witnessed by those present and shared with the other party through the video conference link.
The ceremony in Taipei was attended by Ministry of Education officials and other senior educators, including Dr. Bright Liao, vice president of China University of Technology; Dr. Lily H.M. Chen, CEO of the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan; Professor Sheng-Tung Huang, Dean of International Affairs at National Taipei University of Technology; and Dr. Charles C.H. Wang, the director of the International and Cross-Strait Affairs Center at Chihlee Institute of Technology.
Mr. Larry Walther, chairman of the Taiwan-United States Sister Relations Alliance (TUSA); Dr. Thomas A. Bruce, TUSA president; Dr. Yeh Yun-Chi, the founder of TUSA and its current vice president and his wife, Mrs. Yeh Hsing-Wu; Dr. Wilson Wong, a medical researcher and educator, and specialist at Arkansas heart Hospital; and Ms. Sophie Chou, from the Education Division of TECO in Houston attended the ceremony in Arkansas.
The Department of International and Cross-strait Education in the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education will work bilaterally to enhance educational collaboration and exchanges, and to pursue common benefits and collaborative development between Taiwan and the State of Arkansas as broadly outlined in this newly entered MOU.