At the opening of the 106th TKU Administrative Meeting held on 14/3, Dr. Flora Chang, the President of TKU, praised and thanked the efforts her staff and faculty members put in to win last year’s “National Quality Award.” Nonetheless, she urged continuity in what have been achieved so far in order to uphold the vision of her “House of Quality” for TKU. In return, her senior administrative staff proposed some concrete measures to maintain this momentum.

First, Keh Huan-chao, the Dean of Academic Affairs, believes that it is totally feasible to raise the entrance threshold for TKU future recruits, based on the statistics complied by his staff. He explained that the scores for Chinese, English, and Mathematics of 80% of the applicants in the past three years have increased dramatically demonstrating the quality of students who wish to enter TKU has become higher. It is high time, he points out, for TKU to be choosier in picking students so as to enhance its overall academic competitiveness.

Sung Mei-hwa, the Dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures, also came up with measures of raising the competitiveness of students. One of them is the English proficiency level. To enhance that, she suggested that all students must pass the medium level of the GEPT English Proficiency Test, instead of the beginning level, to qualify for graduation. She believes TKU students are good enough for this level.

Once passing this test, students can be encouraged to take other tests such TOEIC and TOFEL. The university will also provide relevant resources to assist students for reaching these aims.

Finally, Tai Wan Chin, the Vice President for International Affairs, stressed the importance of strengthening international ties through substantial international academic cooperation with TKU sister universities. The most recent development is the signing of 3+1 dual degree program with Temple University (TU), US, which allows students to study three years at TKU and 2 years at TU receiving a bachelors’ (from TKU) and masters’ degree (TU) at the end of the total study. He is convinced this kind of cooperation will enhance TKU academic quality tremendously. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )