NCCU & University of Zurich Sign Collaboration Agreements in Four Fields

Date : 2019-12-02 Department : Office of International Cooperation (OIC)
【By Office of International Cooperation】
To further deepen international exchange in higher education, on October 9, NCCU President Kuo signed a memorandum of cooperation with Michael Hengartner, President of the University of Zurich to promote collaboration between the two universities.

President Hengartner also suggested the two sides begin by promoting summer course exchanges focusing on four major areas: future mobility, future democracy, future communications and future work.

The University of Zurich is the largest comprehensive university in Switzerland. Founded in 1833, the prestigious university counts many Nobel Prize winners among its ranks, including Albert Einstein. President Hengartner noted that, while the University of Zurich is particularly renowned for its expertise in biomedicine, it also enjoys a worldwide reputation for excellence in the social sciences, including political science, economics and anthropology.

The school attaches great importance to cultivating international mobility among its students, encouraging students to spend time in Asia from cross-domain learning, particularly at NCCU, which is known for its forward-looking approach to political research and electoral studies. NCCU also boasts excellent faculties of natural and social sciences, creating cross-disciplinary learning opportunities bridging politics, economics and sociology with the natural sciences for new research in social neuroscience.

At the signing ceremony, President Kuo noted that, “Taiwan has set a democratic standard for Asian nations, that look to Taiwan as a point of reference for the development of democracy.” He noted that many European exchange students come to NCCU to gain new perspective on global politics while simultaneously developing their Chinese language skills through the university’s rich Chinese language program.

President Hengartner mentioned his great personal interest in opportunities NCCU provides to study democratic development and election studies in an Asian context, and said he is looking forward to seeing many more exchange students from NCCU on his campus in the future. The signing of this memorandum of cooperation represents the intention of both universities to actively develop new areas of collaboration in the future.