Taiwan-Germany University Alliance Meets in Germany to Launch New Collaborations
With support from the Ministry of Education, in 2017 six universities in Taiwan comprising the Taiwan University Alliance for Applied Sciences (TAItech) signed a memorandum of cooperation with six universities in Germany comprising the German Alliance for Applied Sciences (HAWtech), forming what has become a dynamic alliance. In the years since, these 12 universities have engaged in a wide variety of collaborative projects, including student exchanges, COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) projects, and double degree programs.
The TAItech member universities in Taiwan are: •National Chin-Yi University of Technology, •National Formosa University, •National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, •National Taipei University of Technology, •National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and •National Yunlin University of Science and Technology.
The German HAWtech member universities are: •FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences, •Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Darmstadt), •Esslingen University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Esslingen), •Hochschule Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, •the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft), and •HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin).
A delegation of 12 representatives of the TAItech universities visited Germany from November 2 to November 11, 2024, led by Prof. Yang Neng-Shu楊能舒, the president of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. Their visit included a HAWtech- TAItech Roundtable Meeting in Berlin on November 8 at which the parties discussed deepening their current exchanges and new opportunities for collaboration. Prof. Yang said that the pandemic had presented challenges hindering bilateral visits and meetings and this visit was a demonstration of the commitment of both sides to maintain and enhance their exchanges. He spoke of the importance of the efforts made by all the member universities to overcome the restrictions during the pandemic that ensured that bilateral engagement continued.
During the meeting, Dr. Pan Wei-Hua, Director of International Affairs at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, presented an AI platform developed by the university for matching teaching staff with specialist expertise that could foster new avenues for cooperation. Dr. Pan said that his university would be stepping down from the position of rotating chair of TAItech next year, but that it would to pass on derails of its valuable experiences to the next chair and continue working closely to realize the alliance’s core goals. These include promoting joint research and teaching, facilitating student exchanges and industry-academia collaboration, collaboration with international partners. and nurturing skilled personnel in an increasingly globalized environment.
Ms. Weng Chin-Ying 翁勤瑛, Director of the Education Division at the Taipei Representative Office in Germany, who was instrumental in establishing the alliance between TAItech and HAWtech recalled the efforts made in 2017. She expressed her delight at witnessing its continuation and she spoke about the potential for expanding collaboration to integrate programs to train skilled people in response to the global competition and to meet the growing demand in fields such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
With renewed momentum from the delegation’s visit, the HAWtech-TAItech alliance plans to build on its strong foundation and continue achieving new goals in the years to come.
