The Vice President for Academic Affairs Feng Chao-kang, together with Director of Office of International Exchange and International Education Chen Hwei-mei, Secretary Kuo Shu-min, and Chair of Department of Japanese Peng Chuen-yang, traveled to Japan on November 27 to visit Tamkang’s sister universities—Kyoto Tachibana University, Reitaku University, and Tokai University—as well as to discuss academic cooperation with Akita International University. The vice president also met Tamkang students currently studying at the sister universities, conveying to them good wishes on behalf of the president, Dr. Flora C. I. Chang.

The vice president said of this trip that he was most impressed by Akita International University, where all the students live on campus and are taught in English and where the staff speaks fluent English. As these features coincide with the objectives of Tamkang’s new Lanyang Campus, cooperation between the two schools is highly desirable. The President of Akita International University, Mineo Nakajima, hoped to visit Tamkang early next March, during his trip to Taiwan for an international conference, and to formally agree on a sister university relationship. The Japanese university is also a sister school of Winona State University, USA, one of TKU’s sister schools. The three universities may establish three-way cooperation in the future.

When visiting Reitaku University, Tamkang’s partner for the past twenty years, Vice President Feng expressed the wish to extend the areas of cooperation, to which the Dean of College of Economics Osamu Nariai gave a positive response. Dr. Nariai also said he was very happy with student exchanges between the two universities. Due to Japan’s economic recession in recent years, there has been a decrease in the number of Reitaku students coming to Tamkang. Vice President Feng discussed with Chair of Department of Chinese Masamichi Mishima the ways to improve learning efficiency for students so as to attract more Reitaku students to come to Tamkang.

During their trip, the vice president and delegates also met and talked with the fifteen Tamkang students (ten from Department of Japanese, and five from Department of Practical Japanese) at Kyoto Tachibana University, and the twenty-six students from the Japanese department studying at Reitaku University. Apart from asking students how they were doing, the Chair of the Department of Japanese Peng Chuen-yang listened to their problems about their study and relayed these issues to his Japanese counterparts in the hope that students would benefit a great deal from their stay in Japan.