Dr. Han-Chieh Chao, the President of the National Dong Hwa University (NDHU),  and Dr. Randall Nadeau, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) Foundation,  signed an MOU on Aug 13th. Starting Fall 2021, U.S. students can apply for Fulbright Scholarships to study in the Master’s degree program at the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures. The scholarship program includes intensive Chinese learning courses in the first year and master’s courses in the second and third years. Grantees will come to Taiwan to study the aboriginal cultures in depth, which will also strengthen the Taiwan-US collaboration in higher education and diversify the international studies at NDHU.

The Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) has been in Taiwan for over 60 years. The Fulbright Program is a flagship international exchange program between the U.S. and 150 countries globally. In the past seventy years, the Fulbright program continue to fund students, scholars, artists, and professionals from all backgrounds and fields to conduct international scholarly exchange. To date, there are eight universities collaborating with the Fulbright program on master’s degree studies. Dr. Randall Nadeau, the Executive Director,  stated that the spirit of Fulbright is to promote understanding and trust between people through cross-cultural learning experiences. NDHU not only offers a diverse academic environment but also stresses equality in different ethnic groups, not to mention that its College of Indigenous Studies is the standard for Taiwan’s  indigenous cultural education. This program will become the newest highlight for Taiwan-U.S. collaboration on higher education.

NDHU has been fostering collaboration with international higher educational institutes in recent years, signing agreements for academic research and student exchange with over forty renowned universities abroad. It offers students grants for short-term foreign study, independent study internship, and participating contests, etc, in the hope that students can be encouraged to broaden their horizons and to improve their engagement with the world. International students account for ten percent in NDHU while there are over 400 courses taught in English in different colleges on campus, offering a friendly learning environment for international studies. The president in NDHU, Dr. Han-Chieh Chao says that this exchange program with Fulbright showcased the internationalization of the university and he hopes to inspire more foreign students to come to Hualien to explore and to conduct research in-depth.