Taiwan Research Center Program at Waseda University Achieves Fruitful Results
The Waseda University Taiwan Research Center Project is jointly promoted by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Waseda University in Japan. It is now in its third year and it has achieved fruitful results, despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 575 students have selected courses offered by the Taiwan Research Center Program and this includes an increase of 130 students in the last academic year, reflecting the interest that the university’s students have in learning more about Taiwan.
The Taiwan Research Center Program of Waseda University was originally the Taiwan Research Institute, which was established in 2003. It was restructured and upgraded to become the Taiwan Research Center in 2018, to expand its scope and provide a richer range of courses. It currently offers 14 Taiwan-related courses, on topics including current developments in Taiwan, the history of Taiwan’s post-war international relations, general history of Taiwan, and history of modern Taiwan. Taiwan Studies scholarships are available to encourage students to engage in studying and research about Taiwan.
A series of research workshops have been held online this year. Seminars on various topics are held from time to time to keep up with current trends in modern Taiwan research and in response to the dangers of the pandemic, like all academic exchange activities, these seminars have changed to being conducted online, using video conference facilities.
Nevertheless, the students at Waseda University taking Taiwan study courses and participating in the Taiwan Research Center Program’s workshops and seminars at the hope that the pandemic will end as soon as possible and look forward to being able to go to Taiwan in person to conduct research and exchanges with students in Taiwan.