Dr. Jane Conoley was accompanied by Dr. Jeet Joshee, Associate Vice President at CSULB. “The trip was very productive for CSULB. We were very impressed by Taiwan”, Dr. Joshee told the TECO Education Division. The Ministry of Education arranged visits to CSULB’s sister universities, China Medical University and Ming Chuan University, during their five-day visit, and also to Fu Jen Catholic University, the University of Taipei, and Da-Yeh University to build new partnerships.

CSULB is one of the largest universities in California and in the U.S.A. with approximately 35,000 students. CSULB sends up to 20 students to Ming Chuan University each year to learn Chinese and it is hoping to develop “3+1+1” programs with Taiwan universities. Students would spend three years studying at a university in Taiwan, then one year at CSULB. This would qualify them for a bachelor’s degree from their university in Taiwan. They could then stay at CSULB for one more year and undertake a master’s degree or post-graduate certificate program.

The visit by the University of California Riverside (UCR) delegation was also very productive. Dr. Paul D’Anieri, the Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor of UCR led a four-person delegation including Dr. Kelechi A. Kalu, Vice Provost of International Affairs, to Taiwan for a five-day visit.

The Ministry of Education in Taiwan organized visits to eight universities in Taiwan for the delegation. Dr. D’Anieri gave a presentation at National Cheng Kung University on the topic “Facing the Transformation of Higher Education in the 21st Century”. He was also interviewed by the National Education Radio about his leadership experience at UCR and about the purposes of the delegation’s visit. The Ministry of Economic Affairs held a signing ceremony for an MOU for recruiting skilled professionals from the U.S.A. and holding a job fair on the UCR campus. The University System of Taiwan hosted a welcoming dinner for UCR, and UCR organized a banquet for UCR alumni to get together and approximately 80 attended.

CSU and UCR both are looking forward to implementing cooperation programs in the days to come. This was the first time that representatives of CSULB and UCR had visited Taiwan, and they all said Taiwan is an incredible dynamic country. They enjoyed their trips and learned a lot, and expressed great thanks again to the Ministry of Education in Taiwan!