【Reported by Yi-ru Chen, Tamkang Times】On July 31st Tamkang University’s Office of the Secretariat held the 2014 Buda Management Transition Ceremony. There were close to 100 individuals in attendance including representatives of the College of International Studies and Asian Studies Complete English Masters Program, the Center Research and Development of Transportation and Logistics, and the Spring Village Research Center. They met with TKU’s Vice President of Academic Affairs, Vice President of Administration, the College of International Studies, the Office of Research and Development, the Department of Continuing Education, the Office of Academic Affairs, the Office of Human Resources, the Office of Information and 31 upper level officials of Administration for the management transition.

President Flora Chia-I Chang expressed, “I’m grateful for the wonderful contributions made by all of the past administrators and I am also very appreciative for the new personnel that are willing to accept the challenges that lie before us. For the next 4 years in higher education, Taiwan will be met with especially difficult challenges to overcome.” President Chang recently attended the “Tenth Cross-strait Hong Kong and Macao University Presidents Forum” on July 14th and she shared the concerns and objectives of Asian higher learning including challenges of innovation and university modification. She mentioned that many of the government organizations of China, Macao and Hong Kong are investing heavily in the development of higher learning, but Taiwan still struggles to find sufficient financial support, hindering university development.

President Chang laid out a plan to meet the challenges in the upcoming years in four steps: Actively Fundraising for the Construction of the Shou Chien International Conference Center which begins construction in November of this year, Full Integration and Cultivation of the Triple Objective Educational Program, Extensive Cultivation and Development of Student Potential, and the Full Implementation of the Principles of the Spirit of Excellence for the next academic year.