NTU President Invited to Discuss Higher Education at Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council

NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang (楊泮池) was invited by NTU’s key partner universities in Germany, the University of Tübingen and the University of Hamburg, to discuss innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and international networking strategies from June 4 to 8 in 2017.

During the visit to Germany, President Yang first traveled to the University of Tübingen with Vice President for International Affairs Luisa Shu-Ying Chang and Director of Global Alliances Section Linda Chang. Since NTU and the University of Tübingen established partnership in 2006, Tübingen President Bernd Engler has visited NTU three times, facilitating exchange of students and faculty members as well as cooperation in fields such as social sciences, law, Mandarin Chinese teaching, sociology, politics, and European Union studies.

As this was the first time an NTU president led a delegation to visit the University of Tübingen, President Engler placed great importance on this event and accompanied President Yang throughout the visit. Based on the existing collaboration in humanities and social sciences, presidents and representatives of both universities deliberated further interdisciplinary cooperation in fields such as translational cancer research, prehistoric history and archaeology, biochemistry and pharmacy, geographical environment, neuroscience, molecular biology and botany, quantum mechanics and nanotechnology, and clinical imaging.

After visiting the University of Tübingen, President Yang headed for the 2017 Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council, an event aiming to initiate dialogue among university leaders worldwide about the key challenges facing higher education systems. Among the 46 participating university leaders in 25 countries, President Yang was the only representative in Taiwan and one of the four Asian university presidents invited to attend the Council.

President Yang had been invited to attend the inaugural Council in 2015. This time, he participated in the 2017 Council as a panel member to exchange opinions and experiences on the topic of “Measuring Quality, Effectiveness and Relevance in a Differentiated System” with university presidents from countries worldwide. At the Council, President Yang introduced Taiwan’s higher educational system, shared NTU’s educational ideals and research specialties, and increased Taiwan and NTU’s visibility to the global community of higher education.