From being the Dean of the Office of International and Cross Strait Affairs to being promoted to the position of Vice President for International Affairs, Professor Hsiao-Chuan Chen said that her tenure as the Dean for the past 4 years was training and consolidating her foundational skills. The efforts of her colleagues allowed her to better understand the intricacies of internationalization, and allowed Tamkang to be better, “(I) feel like there’s a better sense of direction, and better know how to develop further.”

During the pandemic, the border was locked down for two-and-a-half years, but Prof. Chen stated proudly that international exchanges never stopped. “I wasn’t exactly waiting for when the pandemic was ending.” When she realized the coming of the pandemic, she just set up a green screen and initiating remote mode, using the most simple of equipment to carry out online conferences with TKU’s sister universities. Thus, in the past 2 years or so, TKU was still able to become sister university with 20 other universities. “The pandemic gave us time to contemplate. We have the expertise, we can do R&D, we can serve the local community, and make contributions.” She raised the short-term summer courses for recruiting international students as an example, where 130 students from across the world enrolled; although students from sister universities comprised 95% of the students, there were also students who came from other places. The course was entitled “Sustainable development – Taiwan and the world”, where asynchronous professional, language, and cultural classes, as well as three synchronous MS Team online conferences, the course linked up with UN’s concept of“SDGs 17: citizens of the world”. The strength of TKU alumni was also added, where a video visit to the Grand Dynasty Industrial Co. Ltd., headed by Dr. Jian-Xiang Lin (alumni of the Department of Chemistry) was made and local students were also invited to learn from the course. She said, “Drawing the world in, we also have to step out.” Currently, this course has been added into the Ministry of Education’s “ Deepening digital learning promotion and innovative application program for the university alliance”, and she said in the future that there will be more programs that will be relevant to the national policy.

In terms of promoting internationalization, Prof. Chen believes that all of TKU’s development policies, whether it is programs for development of university affairs, SPROUT projects, all have a degree of continuity, with medium- and long-term development, with progress being made one step at a time. With the international environment changing rapidly, and in this era of information explosion, and sudden bursts of talents, the skills and knowledge that talents require is constantly changing, but they will not stray away from internationalization, informatization, and futurization. Tamkang’s emphasis on internationalization and cultivation of international talents, including broadening students’ international perspective, arranging 3 rd year students for overseas exchange programs, raising interactions with sister universities, raising students’ foreign language skills and connecting with the international stage are all goals that the University is working towards.

The Taiwanese magazine Global View Monthly publishes a ranking of Taiwanese universities every year, and Tamkang University takes the assessment and comments from this ranking seriously. The University has made more improvements compared to last year, but how would it make any breakthrough on the internationalization related indices? Professor Chen believe that Tamkang can make more of an effort on two fronts: one is the recruitment of overseas students. Currently, the number of overseas students in Tamkang puts it in second place amongst the Taiwanese universities, but there is still a gap of 100 students or so between Tamkang and the first place university, so this would require some repackaging, in order to emphasize Tamkang’s features. Second, she specifically pointed out the area of student mobility.

Pre-pandemic, Tamkang has around 600 students making overseas visits each year, and with the lockdown lessening, the opportunities for travelling have returned, but the number of students for the New Southward policy continues to be lacking. She encourages students to be bravely walk a different path, so that the number of Tamkang students making oversea visits can make new breakthroughs.

“Sailing from Tamkang to the international stage, with global citizens who can exert their power no matter where they are, who has a sense of global responsibility and global competitiveness. As long as students have dreams, they can realize them, share them with others, and embrace the world.” Each and every word from the professor states what she thinks the definition of “international mobility” is to encourage Tamkang students, and uses a line from Tamkang’s school song as her hope, “’the vast Tamkang’ can really ‘sail ten thousand miles’!”