The Office of International Relations (OIR) is charged with promoting the internationalization of higher education and helping Tunghai University become a more global institution. We aim to foster partnerships with foreign universities and develop student exchange agreements, faculty exchange agreements, and other forms of academic collaboration with universities all over the world. OIR assists Tunghai students who wish to study abroad and serves as the main liaison for foreign students who enroll at Tunghai as exchange students or dual degree students. We also provide support to faculty members from partner institutes who come to Tunghai as visiting lecturers or researchers, and we host short-term lecturers and educational policy-makers. In recent years, we have also developed new avenues for students to broaden their international perspective by means of Dual Degree Programs, Professional Internship Programs, new English-taught courses, Language and Culture Summer Camps, and other programs and activities.
In order to implement our mission and contribute to the increasing importance of international studies, OIR has established three divisions, as listed below.
1. The International and Cross-strait Collaboration
2. The International Student Affairs Section
3. The Chinese Language Center
The mission of OIR is to make Tunghai University a globally aware and culturally diverse institution. To accomplish this mission, OIR actively promotes exchanges and collaborations with universities all over the world and contributes to the creation of an internationally diverse campus.
Tunghai University has always been a keen participant in the international academic community. It was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of educators and policy-makers in the USA and Taiwan and from its early years recruited a diverse range of American, British, and European faculty members. Tunghai continues to build on this foundation and to date has partnership agreements with 331 universities in 37 countries. The OIR, moreover, actively endeavors to develop new agreements with institutions around the globe.
Other aspects of OIR’s mission include:
- To help Tunghai students connect with institutions and people in other countries and cultures and encourage them to participate in overseas exchange programs, international internship programs, and work-study programs.
- To assist foreign students who come to Tunghai as exchange students, dual degree students, or visiting students.
- To assist with the organization of international conferences, and invite distinguished scholars, policy-makers, and business leaders to Tunghai for both long-term and short-term visits.
- To provide Chinese language and culture instruction for foreign students in Tunghai’s Chinese Language Center.
OIR endeavors to foster a pleasant and welcoming campus for foreign students and assists them as they arrive on campus and settle into a new learning/living environment. In keeping with the increasing number of foreign scholars and students on campus, OIR helps transform Tunghai into a bilingual and cultural friendly campus.
OIR will continue to envision and implement plans to further advance international education and collaboration.