On the path of cultivating international talents, we’ve adopted a multifaceted approach leveraging tremendous resources and support from different divisions at NTU. Moving forward, we are determined and committed to refining our strategies and generating more impact.
International Mentorship Program (IMP): Supporting Students to Explore Career Interests and Develop Future Roadmap
Internship plays a vital role in bridging school life with future workplace for university students in Taiwan. Nonetheless, primarily due to insufficient connections and the complexity of visa and work permit applications, international students in Taiwan have encountered high hurdles impeding them from seeking job opportunities after graduation. There are about 3,000 international students from 70 countries studying at NTU each year. To tackle such challenges, NTU Office of International Affairs (OIA) has launched the IMP, the first mentorship-style internship program tailor-made for international students, inviting senior executives and managers of government agencies, foreign organizations, corporations, start-ups, chambers of commerce, research institutions, and non-profit organizations to serve as “mentors” for the “interns”, in hope of providing opportunities for our students to put their theoretical learnings into practice, as well as help them better prepare for the future career.
Additionally, NTU has formed the Global Talent Alliance (GTA) with our partner universities, inviting them to send students to Taiwan to participate in the NTU International Mentorship Program starting in 2023. As Taiwan is a hub of trade, industry, and travel in Asia, this program provides students with a unique opportunity to glimpse into Taiwan’s industry ecosystem and to develop an international network in a multicultural setting. To initiate the process ahead and help international high school students adapt to future college life, NTU signed a collaboration agreement with 13 high schools in Malaysia last month, aiming to increase interaction and explore ongoing initiatives, including the potential establishment of online learning courses suitable for our partner high school students, enabling them to experience the “DNA” of the NTU system through our online curricula, regardless of which university they will end up enrolling in the future.
In 2023, IMP has successfully recruited more than 120 mentors and created 250+ job vacancies at more than 100 companies, not only doubling the amounts of students recruited and job vacancies created from last year but also expanding the depth and breadth of impact on future talent cultivation.
Center for Bilingual Education (CBE): Enhancing English Proficiency and Fostering Global Competence
Apart from international students, we also advocate the internationalization of domestic students in Taiwan. Selected by the Ministry of Education (MOE) as one of the Key Cultivation Schools for the “Program on Bilingual Education for Students in College (BEST)”, NTU has set up more than 1800 English-lectured courses, as well as developed several initiatives under CBE, such as English Corner and Chatterbox, which not only motivated Taiwanese students to enhance English proficiency but also catalyzed their interaction with international students to foster global competence.
Kathryn Ryan from Indonesia, along with Luis Carias and Samael Guardado from Honduras, interned at
International Ocean Group (IOG) through NTU International Mentorship Program.
Elena, a Spanish Ph.D. student, had the opportunity to intern at Carrefour last summer under the guidance of her mentor, Marilyn Su, Corporate Sustainability Director of Carrefour Taiwan as well as the CEO of Carrefour Foundation Taiwan.
Aureliana Winarto is a graduate student from Indonesia, interned at STMicroelectronics under the guidance of Giuseppe Izzo, the Regional Vice President and Taiwan Managing Director at STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Region.