President Flora Chia-I Chang took part in the 2008 Forum of Taiwanese, Southeast-Asian and South-Asian University Presidents at Cheng Kung University on Nov. 10, chairing the session of “Strengthening and Promoting Students’ Academic Knowledge and Skills.” She shared with 74 university presidents TKU’s experiences in implementing an education of “Three Circles and Five Disciplines” (3 circles: Professional Curriculum, Core Curriculum and Extracurricular Curriculum; 5 disciplines: Conduct, Intelligence, Physical Education, Teamwork and Beauty) in order to cultivate spiritually outstanding and knowledgeably talented students. The Forum has been the largest international conference for university presidents hosted by Taiwan so far, and for the first time, it has extended to the region of South Asia, starting a new era for higher education cooperation between Southeast Asia, South Asia and Taiwan. The Forum provided a platform for participating presidents to share their experiences, promoting higher education, and strengthening international exchanges and co-operations.

The theme of this Forum was “Visioning Human challenges in Globalization and the Urgent Responsibilities of the 21st Century Universities.” President Chang expressed that because of scientific and technological innovations and inventions, cultural exchanges caused the world to remold radically. Facing new environments and complex problems, university students should not only learn skills of applying acquired knowledge but also well understand their personal and social responsibilities. Higher educational institutions should systematically combine curricula, teaching and learning together, enabling students to engage in specialized work and have sound life goals. She expected that except diligently acquiring academic knowledge and skills, students should take part in extracurricular activities; thus, they could be multi-skilled and more competitive after graduation, smoothly being assimilated into industries, enterprises, and society. ( ~Dean X. Wang )