In the afternoon of November 1st, we welcomed Professor Toru Yamada from the Faculty of Arts and Letters at Meiji University in Japan, to NTNU for a discussion on academic cooperation and student exchange programs. Prof. Yamada was received by our Associate Dean, Prof. Joan Chiung-huei Chang. We discussed how to boost our student exchange and promote academic cooperation.
Since 2016, our college has been maintaining a close partnership with Meiji University and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Student Exchange Agreement (SEA). While our students have been actively participating in Meiji University’s exchange program, we would like to increase the number of students from Japan coming to NTNU for exchange. Therefore, one of the main focuses of this visit is to discuss how we can increase the interest of Japanese students in coming to NTNU.
The Associate Dean, Prof. Chang, proposed an option of shortening the duration of the exchange program from one semester to a short-term faculty-student exchange, or setting up a collaboration through NTNU’s “Global Virtual Classroom Coursed.” Prof. Yamada. also shared his thoughts on why Japanese students are not enthusiastic in coming to Taiwan for exchange, but he also promised to do his best to publicize and promote cooperation between our two universities.
Prof. Yamada is one of the most popular teachers at Meiji University. He shared with us his teaching philosophy, which aims to break down the barrier between Japanese and international students. He promotes active classroom interaction through group presentations, ensuring that each group includes both domestic and international students, and encouraging the use of English to communicate. As a result, his classes are always full, even with as many as 1,500 students in his online classroom!
Prof. Yamada also serves as the chairman of Meiji University’s International Exchange Committee and participates in numerous international exchange events, which is why he visits Taiwan very often.
We look forward to further expanding our exchanges with Meiji University and welcoming more Meiji University students to academic exchanges with NTNU in the future.
