As NPUST continues to promote internationalization under the leadership of university president Chang-Hsien Tai, the university has been working with the Office of International Affairs to improve the excellent and comfortable learning environments that they provide to overseas students who come from afar to study in Taiwan. They have also been working to enhance interaction and co-learning between overseas and local students and encouraging international cultural exchanges to increase Taiwanese students’ understandings of the different cultural backgrounds of their overseas classmates. In recognition of the excellent results of all their work, on November 23, NPUST was named by the Ministry of Education as the “2021 Excellent School for Foreign Student Counseling Work”.
Pomin Li, the Director of the Office of International Affairs offered some remarks, stating that “this honor is due to the joint efforts of the teachers and students of the school. During their studies in Taiwan, the school actively provides assistance, care and guidance to its overseas students, and helps them to solve the problem they encounter from time to time. We also hold many multicultural activities and lectures to promote cultural exchanges between Taiwan and other countries. These activities have been praised by teachers and students both inside and outside of the school and have helped overseas students feel at ease and enjoy themselves during their time away from home.
NPUST’s Office of International Affairs was established in 2004 and is currently organized into the Education Division, Cooperation Division and Development Division. The Education Division is responsible for the enrollment of overseas students, life counseling, handling of overseas student scholarships, residence permits and work permit applications. They also help domestic students with their applications for overseas study scholarships from the Ministry of Education and other organizations.
The Cooperation Division is responsible for managing the university’s agreements with foreign sister schools and matters related to student exchanges and short-term overseas study groups. They also make the arrangements for executive visits, international cooperation activities and the reception of foreign guests. On top of this, they are responsible for work related to the Green University project, and are the point of contact for the University Network for Tropical Agriculture (UNTA). The Development Division is responsible for promoting international academic exchanges, the New Southbound project, and overseas special classes. They are also responsible for the Taiwan Education Center in Thailand and other related projects.
Since 1998, the NPUST and the International Cooperation and Development Fund have been conducting educational diplomacy, working together to recruit students from countries who have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. At the same time, the university has been cooperating with scholarship plans from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology to recruit foreign students for bachelors, masters, and doctorate degree programs. Later, in order to expand the enrollment of students from countries which currently do not have official diplomatic relationships with Taiwan, NPUST began offering a new set of scholarships and bursaries. Currently there are 528 overseas students studying at NPUST, coming from countries all around the world. Over the years, many students who have returned home after studying at the university have performed very well in their career development and have also helped to improved relations between their countries and Taiwan.
