On May 26, the President of Tamkang University, Dr. Flora Chia-I Chang, led a group of senior Tamkang staff to visit several sister universities in Central America. During their trip, they visited three TKU partner universities: Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, the University of Panama, and the Technological University of Panama. Taiwan’s Representative to Mexico, Andrea Lee, and Taiwan’s Ambassador to Panama, Diego Chou, also took part in the scheduled activities.

At the TKU administrative conference held after the delegation’s return to Taiwan, President Chang encouraged related academic departments to enhance their level of interaction with Tamkang’s partner universities in Central America. During the conference, the Vice President for International Affairs, Dr. Wan-Chin Tai, who was one of the members in the TKU delegation to Latin America, described Andrea Lee’s comments during the trip: “President Chang is a role model for all other university presidents in Taiwan. She is the first Taiwanese university president to personally visit Latin America for the purpose of extending academic relations with local universities.” She also explained that Tamkang University is also the number one Taiwanese university in research focused on Latin American politics, economics and culture. Moreover, 65% of diplomatic staff working at embassies and representative offices in Central America are graduates of Tamkang University.

Of particular note was an agreement signed with the Technology University of Panama as well as a non-sister university, Universidad Latina de Panama. The agreement will increase the allowed quota for student exchange between Tamkang and the two universities starting from the Spring Semester of the 2012 – 2013 academic year. One of the other major gains made from the visit to Central America was learning that many Central American universities are extremely interested in collaborating with Taiwanese universities to conduct research in the area of high technology. Vice President Tai noted that South America is an area which presents vast opportunities for future academic cooperation. In the future, TKU marketing materials will also feature Spanish versions in order to increase Tamkang’s exposure among universities in Central and South America.