On the day of the TKU Diamond Jubilee, nine university presidents from nine separate Mainland Chinese universities converged on the Tamsui Campus to take part in the festivities and attend the TKU Official Ceremony. In the afternoon, eight of the nine presidents participated in a Presidents Forum on the topic “Prospects for Enhanced Cross-Strait Collaboration”. During the forum, TKU signed an agreement with Tianjin University, making Tianjin the 29th TKU sister school from Mainland China. TKU and Nanjing University then concluded a student exchange agreement, set to take effect as early as next semester. President of TKU, Dr. Flora Chia-I Chang, said that TKU has always actively pursued cooperative programs with its sister universities, and that in future, even more universities will become a part of the TKU sister school network.

Items for discussion in the forum included trends in cross-strait higher education, as well as opportunities for and obstacles to collaboration between cross-strait universities. The forum moderator, former Minister of Education and current President of Fo Guang University, Yung Chaur-Shin, observed that “right now in Taiwan, Mainland Chinese students face a number of obstacles in the form of accommodation arrangements as well as guidance and counselling constraints. I hope that in future, a cross-strait student body will be established to assist students in such issues”.