During the recent Diamond Jubilee celebrations, TKU hosted approximately 85 guests from 35 universities around the world. The guests, apart from attending the Official Ceremony on the 6th, also participated in an international Presidents Forum on the 7th, held at TKU’s idyllic Lanyang Campus. The forum explored the topic “New Trends in Higher Education”, with speeches delivered by six university presidents from renowned institutes in the USA, Europe, and Japan.

The speeches shed light on nascent trends in academia around the world. Speakers included the presidents of San Francisco State University, Charles University in Prague, Tsuda College, Winona State University, Reitaku University, and Stockholm University. The talks broached issues such as the need to balance academic progress with moral and community based considerations, the globalizing effects of the internet, as well as trends in higher education in Japan and Sweden.

President of Winona University, Dr. Judith A. Ramaley, in her speech entitled “Educating for the 21st Century”, explained the necessity of globalizing education and “building a world, not just a nation”. She also emphasized the importance of exchange programs in bringing about this borderless brand of education. Prof. Osamu Nakayama, President of Reitaku University, talked about two institutes established by Reitaku University – R-bec and CMSE – which work to promote moral and responsible development in the fields of business, science, and education.

At the conclusion, the President of TKU, Dr. Flora Chia-I Chang, gave a humorous talk. She encapsulated the spirit of academic cooperation between Asian and western universities in a variation of Rudyard Kipling’s well-known phrase about the East and the West: “East is East and West is West, and when they combine, you get the best”.