Asia University and Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO), Jakarta, co-organized the Sixth Taiwan-Indonesia Higher Education Forum, which was held on-line from November 25 to 26, 2021. The forum attracted more than 200 university presidents, vice presidents, deans and directors of International Office, and other scholars and administrators from Taiwan universities and Indonesian universities.

Prof. Mon-chi Lio, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Education, Taiwan, and Prof. Ir. Nizam, M.Sc., DIC, Ph.D., IPU, Asean Eng., Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Indonesia, sent their congratulatory addresses to the forum, and both expressed their gratitude and excitement to observe the Taiwan-Indonesia relationship ushering a new phase of development.

Mr. John C. Chen, Representative of Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO), Jakarta, and Mr. Budi Santoso, Representative of Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, also attended the forum online and both in their speeches for the opening affirmed that they were elated to see the fast-growing bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

The forum successfully drew a large and unprecedented number of university administrators and scholars from both countries. The participating universities include 58 universities such as National Taiwan University; National Taiwan Normal University; Ching Hua University; National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University; Central University; China Medical University from Taiwan; and 54 universities such as Indonesia University; Airlangga University; Brawijaya University; Diponegoro University; Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta from Indonesia.

Dr. Jeffrey J. P. Tsai, President of Asia University, stated in his opening remarks that the theme of this year’s forum is “Challenges and Opportunities of Higher Education in the Age of Globalization, Digital Technology and the New Normal,” a timely response to education reform in the post-Covid-19 era. He further observed that digital learning has emerged as the crucial change in contemporary educational technology and pedagogy. The forum invited Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Executive Yuan, to deliver a keynote speech, and twelve presidents and rectors from both countries to share their vision and best practices in talent cultivation, educational innovation, coping with the New Normal, metaverse learning, online collaboration and university social responsibilities.

A round-table talk was arranged at the end of the conference and six scholars gave their feedback on the important issues discussed over the forum. Another feature of the forum was the group signing ceremony, in which110 Memorandum of Understanding of various collaborations were signed between 22 Taiwan universities and 25 Indonesia universities.

Dr. Nicole Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education, MOE, said, “It is my pleasure to attend the Sixth Taiwan-Indonesia Higher Education Forum, and witness the signing of so many MOUs between Taiwan and Indonesia. We can expect in the near future there will be more academic cooperation emerging from these partnerships.”