University of Makati Goes to Taiwan
Four top universities in four cities from the north to the south, three benchmarking visits, and a joint research symposium, capping off with a courtesy call to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei all in just four days, it was a full-packed study tour last week in Taiwan for 17 delegates of the University of Makati (UMak) led by President Elyxzur Ramos.
Having recently been granted institutional recognition as a higher education institution by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and being the first local university to be ranked 101 to 200 in the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) 2023, the international study visit was another first for the University in its bid to upgrade its academic ranking, particularly on internationalization which has increasingly become a key feature of higher education in the post-COVID 19 global age.
The study tour kicked off with a benchmarking visit on July 3 in northwestern Taiwan at Chang Gung University (CGU) located in Taoyuan City. CGU is a top private multidisciplinary university and ranked 475 in the World University Rankings 2023.
The next day the delegation was in central Taiwan to visit China Medical University’s (CMU) Shuinan smart campus in Taichung City, which is also its main campus. CMU, a well-respected academic research institution and the medical school ranked 265 in the World University Rankings 2023, has been a partner of UMak since 2022. The second joint symposium on July 4, this time conducted face-to-face, was an even more productive follow-through of last year’s first joint research forum conducted online.
Finally, the group traveled to the south to visit two top-ranked pioneering universities in Kaohsiung for benchmarking and exploratory talks on July 4, i.e. Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, a Catholic school and the first and the only university of languages in Taiwan, and Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU), the first private medical university in Taiwan.
Also leading the UMak delegation were the other Management Committee (ManCom) members which included the Vice President for Academic Affairs and concurrent Dean of the College of Continuing, Advanced and Professional Studies Ederson Tapia, Vice President for Administration Jewel Bulos, Vice President for Planning and Research and concurrent Dean of the Institute of Pharmacy Maria Fay Nenette Cariaga, Vice President for Student Services and Community Development Virgilio Tabbu, and University Secretary Juvy Hermosura. Aside from the ManCom, seven academic heads and four administrative heads were part of the delegation team.
The Taiwan study visit was spearheaded by the Office of the President, Office of the University Secretary-Center for Linkages, Career Development and Placement in collaboration with the Taiwan Education Center (TEC) in the Philippines and Edu-Connect Southeast Asia Association Kaohsiung.
Written by: Cynthia Margaretta R. Jose, Director of Center for Linkages, Career Development and Placement (CLCDP)
Photos: Jay Bergania, Dean of College of Education
