TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With its strong local connections and an extraordinary faculty, National Cheng Kung University has great opportunity to do things different from other universities in Taiwan and to expand its research network to the world, said a leading scholar on Monday, adding that the timing for NCKU to engage in biomedical and medical technology is good.
Eugene Wong, academician of Academia Sinica and former councilor for American National Academy of Engineering, visited NCKU, southern Taiwan, offering his insights into Taiwan’s higher education and sharing his optimistic views on NCKU when he had a fruitful talk with NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung.
NCKU started off with engineering specialty and has since developed into a comprehensive university. Among its nine colleges, the medical college has performed well.
It is obvious that NCKU College of Medicine is well intergraded with other departments like engineering, sciences, management -- an achievement that is promising, Wong said.
He said more efforts can be put into the advanced programs of biomedical and medical technology, not just drug discovery but also clinical instrument or laboratory equipment in a variety of areas, as he sees medical technology as the first new industry that can evolve out of electronic industry.
With bilateral fund and research, the cooperation between NCKU and Delta Electronics is on the right track, said Wong, who was impressed by the joint projects of NCKU and Delta and said the academic-industry collaboration has provided professors an opportunity to apply their research in practical areas.
Responding to a question from President Hwung regarding academic-industry cooperation in the United States, Wong pointed at the importance of open innovation and the benefit of input from outside, noting that nowadays American companies have fostered close relations with universities to take advantages of technology transfer.
On the ranking myth prevailing in Taiwan’s higher education, Wong commented that a university aware of its strengths and focusing on the opportunity that differentiates it from others will grow to be a real first-class university.
As for the internationalization of Taiwan’s universities, Wong said teaching courses in English and recruiting more international faculty will help attract more international students from the world.