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Over the past few years, the Taiwan-Indonesia Urban and Land Research Center (TIUL) and the University of Al Azhar (UAI) have established a strong relationship in academic research and international education. In February of this year, the center visited NTPU’s sister school and TIUL research partner, the University of Al Azhar (UAI) in Indonesia. Subsequently, from July 9th to July 15th, Prof. Asep Saefuddin, the Rector of UAI, led a delegation to visit National Taipei University(NTPU) and TIUL. During the visit, they discussed future collaborative plans concerning the TIUL offices of both universities.

[img] group photo of our center members and UAI team

In attendance was also the President of NTPU, prof. Cheng-Jia Li, the PI of the TIUL project and Vice President of NTPU, prof. Daxin Chen, Dean of Office of International Affairs, prof. Wen-i Lin, the co-PI of the TIUL project and Dean of Sustainable Innovation College, prof. Wann-Ming Wey, the Director of TIUL, Dr. Hsuan-Chang Shih, Director of the Office of Research and Development and Innovation Center, Zhen-Yu Jiang, and Assistant Professor Luo Guo-Hui from the Department of History in the College of Humanities, among others. They collectively discussed the direction and content of future educational programs and talent cultivation between the two universities.

[img] meeting of NTPU members and TIUL and UAI teams

During the meeting, the Dean of the College of Sustainable Innovation and the International College for Sustainable Innovation (ICSI), Wann-Ming Wey mentioned, “ICSI offers various programs such as Finance MBA, International Program for Urban Governance (IPUG), and Master's program in Smart Healthcare Management (SHM). ICSI is committed to providing a warm and friendly learning environment, integrating teaching and research resources, and offering space for Muslim prayers and activities. Moreover, the center provides Chinese language courses to provide different levels of Chinese language learning resources for international students, joint degree programs, and exchange students. Considering the established relationship between the Taiwan-Indonesia Overseas Research Center and the University of Al Azhar, this relationship is believed to be even more fruitful in the coming years. Looking ahead, both universities hope to further extend their higher education cooperation and foster more international teaching and experiential areas, promoting talent cultivation and exchange.”

Rector of UAI, Prof. Asep Saefuddin also mentioned, “The Taiwan-Indonesia Urban Environment Change and Land Resource Management Research Center (TIUL), originally named and operated with a focus on studying environmental changes and land resource management in various cities in Taiwan and Indonesia. However, considering the expansion of goals in higher education programs, talent cultivation, and exchanges between the two universities, for the center to operate more efficiently, perhaps its name and concept could be broadened to 'Taiwan-Indonesia Research Center (TIRC),' allowing for more diverse research topics and cooperation partners to join. The change in name and concept is not only to alter the operating mode of previous cooperation projects between UAI and NTPU but also to expand the possibilities of cooperative projects between Indonesian schools and Taiwan.”

Furthermore, during UAI's visit to Taiwan, the Director of TIUL, Dr. Hsuan-Chang Shih, led the UAI team to visit Dr. Wei-Sen Li, Secretary-General of the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) and discussed the two sides exchanged information on disaster prevention and reduction work, past experiences, and current policy issues related to disaster prevention and reduction and discussed with Taiwan and Indonesia. And also visited the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei (IETO) and met with Mr. Labal S Shofwan, the presentative of the Indonesia department of IETO, to share policies and actual operations in economic and trade, diplomacy, education, and tourism between the two countries.

[img] TIUL and UAI team visited NCDR

[img] TIUL and UAI team visited IETO

Moreover, this year, TIUL successfully applied for an international collaborative research project with Indonesia - the UAI summary Featured Areas project. It is the first large-scale international collaborative research project for the center and partner countries. The project includes researchers from this university's International College, TIUL, and four Indonesian universities, such as Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Semarang State University (UNNES), and University of Al Azhar (UAI). The project aligns with NTPU's internationalization goals and the New Southbound Policy, strengthening cooperation with Southeast Asian countries. The five sub-projects cover the following areas: (1) Coastal flood and subsidence model estimation, (2) Real estate and urban development, (3) Urban tourism development, and (4) Community resilience. As such, it is hoped that the center will continue to take this as a case and actively execute cooperative projects with other collaborating units in the future.

• News/Photos provided by National Tapei University - Taiwan-Indonesia Urban and Land Research Center, TIUL