While the epidemic was raging, international exchange fell subject to extreme limitation. Yet, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) broke through barriers by holding online education and academic discourse. The university even took things a step further by bringing together the presidents of some of the overseas sister schools to present unique insights as part of a newly created University of Tropical Agriculture Alliance (UNTA) online “Expert Lectures” course. One of the course participants was Thailand’s Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT). With things back to normal, this long-time partner of NPUST was very pleased to pay a visit to the NPUST campus on March 14th (2023) to discuss future cooperation. Headed up by RMUTT’s president, their delegation of 24 was welcomed by NPUST’s President Chin-Lung Chang before they were brought up-to-date on NPUST’s new developments and school features. The main focus of interest during their stay was the Agriculture College, at which discussions were held regarding the feasibility of a dual education system.
NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang said that he looks forward to more cooperation between the two universities on sustainable issues. This will also lead to other opportunities for cooperation in new fields in the future. With the two sides learning from one another, he also looks forward to fruitful results in teacher and student exchanges, research, and education—and that together, they will be able to contribute even more to sustainable development in agriculture.
The president of RMUTT, Dr. Sommai Pivsa-Art, expressed that he was very glad to have been able to continue interacting with NPUST during the pandemic via the online courses. And now that the borders are opened, he hopes to see even more opportunities for interaction and exchange.
While on campus, the NPUST Office of International Affairs organized a tour of the university’s Green Energy Greenhouse, Simulated GMP Food factory, Food Processing Factory, and Department of Information Management.RMUTT and NPUST became sister schools after signing a cooperation agreement in 2011 and have enjoyed close and frequent exchanges in a variety of areas ever since. In addition to the students from RMUTT who come to NPUST for degree work, many have been coming on a regular basis for short-term exchanges and internships in such areas as Animal Husbandry, Hospitality, and Tourism. Thailand’s RMUTT is a comprehensive university of science and technology dedicated to providing higher education and conducting academic research. Their teaching quality has been widely praised by both domestic and foreign counterparts.