Earlier this month, President C. I. Chang visited Xiamen City in China’s Fujian Province to attend the “The 2nd Presidents’ Forum of Cross-strait Universities,” featuring on “communication and cooperation among cross-strait universities,” “the objectives and social responsibility of university” and other important issues. President Chang indicates that we will continue to promote the academic exchanges between Tamkang and our sister schools in mainland China.

President Chang said that she had sensed the great atmosphere for cross-strait exchanges during her attendance in the forum in Xiamen. The universities from Taiwan and China both expressed the wish to expand the academic interactions of both sides of Taiwan Strait. President Chang urged the students in TKU to take the opportunity of exchange program to study in the sister schools in China to expand their views of the world. Tamkang University currently has a total number of 18 sister schools in China.

Some of the hottest topics in the forum include a mutual recognition of each others’ higher education diplomas and credits. However, the final decision on whether or not to acknowledge Chinese diplomas has to be made by the central government. More than 90 universities from both sides of the Taiwan Strait has joined the forum in Xiamen, and 36 of them are from Taiwan, including some prominent local universities such as the National Taiwan University and National Sun Yat-sen University. Next year’s forum will be hosted by Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai )