Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Saint Vincent for short) is a Latin American country which has shared diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1981. Ambassador Andrea Bowman, who assumed the role of Saint Vincent’s Ambassador to Taiwan in 2019, previously served as the principal of St. Vincent’s First Girls’ High School. Over the years, Ambassador Bowman has worked tirelessly to promote educational and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and St. Vincent and March 31 (2025), the Caribbean Student Union and NPUST Office of International Affairs invited her to give a gender literacy lecture at the university and engage with students on topics such as “gender equality” and “inclusive societies”.

NPUST currently has 48 students from Caribbean countries enrolled in studies at the school, including 6 from Saint Vincent. While on campus, Ambassador Bowman had a brief meeting with university president Chin-Lung Chang before the lecture. The president expressed his deep gratitude to the ambassador for taking the time to come to the south of Taiwan to provide a lecture at NPUST. The ambassador praised the high-quality education afforded by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and said that the first student from Saint Vincent to study at NPUST intends to continue at the university in pursuit of a doctorate degree.

Ambassador Bowman believes that in the current educational context, “gender equality” cannot fully meet the needs of women and men. She believes that quality education in “Goal 4” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims at “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all” is closest to her ideals. Bowman argued that the current social environment has not yet achieved expected goals, and that gender “equity” should be emphasized more than gender “equality” in modern education. The students who participated in the lecture agreed that “gender equity” is more substantial than “gender equality”. The NPUST Office of International Affairs organized the gender quality education lecture to inspire positive thinking among teachers and students with respect to the practice of gender equality issues.