Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE) recently awarded five universities, of which NCUE is one and the only winner located in Central Taiwan, for their excellent international student counseling in 2017. It shows NCUE’s achievement of internationalization based on President Kuo’s governing strategy, which is widely recognized, actively offering sufficient support to international students in hopes that they enjoy their learning journey in Taiwan.

According to MOE, the amount of international students studying at Taiwan colleges and universities is about 116,000, accounting for 8.9% of college students in 2016. Currently there are about 500 international students at NCUE. The Office of International and Cross-strait Affairs (OICA) plays an important role to assist them in adapting to the new environment in Taiwan, and wins schoolwide recognition for its success, such as recruiting voluntary student buddies and international ambassadors helping solve their problems in the daily life and plan and organize activities for them, creating a set of standard operating procedures for unexpected events that happen to them, publishing a brochure providing the information needed to study and live in Taiwan, collaborating with the Student Psychological Counseling and Guidance Center to help students cope with maladaptive anxiety, and arranging multiple culture activities to promote the exchange between local and international students.

OICA Dean Cindy Huang received the award in Taipei on behalf of NCUE. She expressed her appreciation for MOE’s recognition for NCUE’s hard work on international affairs. She indicated that since OICA was established four years ago, NCUE has increased its partner universities globally by 300%, and its international students by 700%. Located in Changhua of Central Taiwan with less internationalized development, OICA spares no effort to improve services for international students and to enhance the internationalization of the University’s surroundings by working with the government, in hopes of creating an environment from which the international and local students may benefit.

Dean Huang also gives credit to all NCUE academic departments, administrative units, faculty and students for offering international students an ideal studying and living environment, which enables NCUE to win the competition. She expressed her hope that all the effort that went into making NCUE a more international friendly institution is sustainable.