Representative Harry Tseng and colleagues with representatives from the Taiwan Student Associations in Belgium

About 150 Taiwanese students travel to Belgium each year, on exchanges or to undertake a degree, with the largest number studying at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven). The Taipei Representative Office in the EU & Belgium encouraged the students from Taiwan to establish Taiwanese Student Associations at their universities to interact with and support other students from Taiwan. There are currently five major Taiwanese Student Associations at different universities in Belgium.

On June 29, 2020, Representative Harry Tseng and Chen Yuwen, Director of the Education Division hosted the first post-lockdown lunch meeting for representatives from the Taiwan Student Associations in Belgium. These included the former, current and future heads of the Taiwan Student Associations at KU Leuven, and student representatives from Louvain-la-Neuve, Ghent University, and other universities. The Education Division has kept in touch with the Taiwanese Student Associations throughout the pandemic to keep them informed and check-up on their situation using a messenger Chatbot and health-checker system that some of the students themselves were instrumental in developing this innovative AI-application.

Director Chen was very happy to welcome the student representatives and thank the students involved in the collaborative project for their efforts, and thank all the students for their assistance and support checking up on each other during these trying times, and making sure everyone remained in good health.  

Representative Harry Tseng will soon be leaving Belgium for Taiwan to take up a new post as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs after a 3-year stay in Belgium, so everyone enjoyed a slideshow of photos of past gatherings and events. Representative Tseng addressed the students and impressed on them the importance of international relations drawing on his extensive knowledge of current international affairs on a global scale. The students were very interested in his views and the lunch meeting ended with a friendly Q&A.