LMU Munich Visits NTNU
On 1 June, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich visited National Taiwan Normal University as part of its initiative to promote international educational exchange. Professor Dr. Bernd Huber, President of LMU Munich, and Professor Hans van Ess, Vice President for Research, met with NTNU President Cheng-Chih Wu, Executive Vice President Frank Ying, and Associate Vice President for International Affairs Elise Li. Professor Candida Syndikus, Director of the Graduate Institute of Art History, also joined the visitors on a tour of NTNU’s Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics.
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich is one of Europe's most prestigious universities, internationally renowned for its strong academic research and for having produced 43 Nobel Prize winners as of October 2020. For over 13 years, LMU Munich has maintained its status as an elite university in Germany as designated by the German Universities Excellence Initiative. In addition, as the second-largest university in Germany, LMU Munich leads the charge in addressing the current challenges for higher education in Germany. LMU President Huber shared about Germany’s growing need for teacher preparation and training due to changing family structures and digitalization, and the apparent decline in student interest for the humanities. This is concerning due to the humanities’ fundamental importance for economic power, political decisions, and the way societies communicate especially globally. As an expert in Chinese and Mongolian studies, Dr. Hans van Ess, who had previously worked with NTNU in Chinese studies, also noted that an expertise in Chinese is now a priority even in other fields. For LMU Munich students to have quality study abroad opportunities in this region of the world would greatly enhance their education.
Given that NTNU is recently ranked by US News as the ninth best university in the world for Education and Education Research and the first in Humanities for the fifth consecutive year by Global Views Monthly, there is ample opportunity for collaboration between NTNU and LMU Munich. NTNU’s School of Teacher Education has the first and best-established International Baccalaureate Educator Certificate Program as well as a robust structure for transnational pre-service teacher exchange and internship. As a Bilingual Benchmark University and part of a three-university alliance, NTNU has the capacity to provide 600 courses taught in English, a global culture program accessible to English speakers, and free Chinese program through its world-renowned Mandarin Training Center. As a leader in education reform in Taiwan, NTNU has extensive experience and resource to share both in general pedagogy and also specific linguistic subjects as evidenced by its growing number of Huayu BEST program university partners in the United States. The University hopes that this visit by LMU Munich will be the start of practical educational exchanges that will benefit students of both universities.