A dozen universities from Taiwan and the Midwestern United States demonstrate early, a remarkable achievement of the Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative by jointly signing MOUs witnessed by Taiwan and U.S. officials
A joint, online and in-person ceremony for the signing of "Taiwan Excellent Mandarin" language program memoranda for 12 universities in Taiwan and the Midwest United States was held at Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) in Chicago on September 28, 2021.
The universities from Taiwan and their counterparts in the United States include (in six pairs): Tsinghua University and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Tamkang University and the University of Michigan - Flint; Tunghai University and North Park University, Illinois; National Taiwan University and Indiana University Bloomington; National Donghua University and Oakland University, Michigan; and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. These six well-known American universities in the Midwest, which shows the vigorous potential of the Chinese language education cooperation between the Midwestern United States and Taiwan.
U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Camille Dawson, Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Education Mon-chi Liu and Director General Douglas Hsu of the North American Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed their congratulations by remote location. Ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao, representative of the TECRO in the U.S., and Director General Johnson Chiang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago attended the ceremony at DPI as witnesses.
Leaders of U.S. universities who attended the ceremony in-person included Timothy Killeen, president of the University of Illinois System; Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, vice provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Sonja Feist-Price, provost and vice chancellor of the University of Michigan - Flint; Daniel Mahony, president of the Southern Illinois University System; and President Mary K. Surridge and Provost Michael Carr of North Park University. Participating and signing the MOUs online were Executive Vice President and Provost Britt Rios-Ellis of Oakland University, Vice President Hannah L. Buxbaum of Indiana University Bloomington and Chancellor Austin A. Lane of Southern Illinois at Carbondale.
Taiwan university leaders who spoke and signed their MOUs online included President Hocheng (賀陳弘) of Tsinghua University; President Keh (葛煥昭) of Tamkang University; President Wang (_) of Tunghai University; Executive Vice President Chou (周家蓓 ) of National Taiwan University; President Chao (趙涵捷) of National Donghua University; and President Chen (陳美華) of Wenzao Ursuline University; while more than 30 other people joined remotely in Taiwan.
Ambassador Hsiao congratulated the schools for their cooperative alliances and diligence in working to deepen people-to-people ties and said/emphasized that the TECO office will continue its efforts to promote more Taiwan Excellent Mandarin language programs to build such bridges. “We look forward to more extensive and broader cooperation in the fields of education and Mandarin language cooperation between Taiwan and the United States in the future,” she added.
