FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Will Whitmire, wwhitmire@skdknick.com
Taipei City, Taiwan – In keeping with their longstanding commitment to international education, Ming Chuan University (MCU) and Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on March 17, 2023, to establish a framework for cooperative activities and joint research in the coming year.
The research collaboration will focus on cross-cultural comparative education, with an emphasis on topics such as large-scale international measures, sustainable development goals, and environmental education. The institutions also plan to explore scholar visits, student exchanges, and interdisciplinary programs.
The agreement was signed in Taoyuan City by Hsuan-Shih Lee, President of Ming Chuan University, and Thomas R. Bailey, President of Teachers College, the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, which was the first graduate institution to create what is today known as the International and Comparative Education program.
“Ming Chuan University is a perfect partner for Teachers College to expand and deepen our rich history in international education,” said Thomas Bailey, President, Teachers College, Columbia University. “Our institutions understand the value of global cooperation and cross-pollination, which only strengthen the possibilities for growth and the development of new and exciting educational ventures in New York, Taiwan, and around the world.”
“We are proud to sign an MOU with Teachers College, Columbia University, an institution that shares our commitment to providing quality education to students worldwide,” said Dr. Chuan Lee, Chancellor of Ming Chuan University. “Our shared accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education is a testament to the quality of our institutions, and I am confident that this collaboration will enable us to further promote academic exchanges, explore interdisciplinary programs, and conduct research collaboration.”
The memorandum formalizes a cooperative relationship between the two private institutions that began in 2021, when Teachers College alumnus Gary Lee (M.A., Economics and Education; 2000), who was a student of President Bailey, made an introduction between MCU and TC, with the goal of fostering cross-cultural collaboration and exchange.
It was Mr. Lee’s grandparents, Dr. Ying-Chao Lee and Dr. Teh-Ming Pao, who founded Ming Chuan University in 1957 as Taiwan’s first women’s business school. They envisioned a school that would be devoted to supporting national business development in Taiwan. And just as Teachers College’s founder, Grace Dodge, founded the College to offer practical skills and create opportunities for underserved immigrant women in New York near the turn of the twentieth century, Mr. Lee’s grandmother, Dr. Pao, dedicated herself to building and leading the university as a means of empowering women in Taiwan.
Since its founding in 1957, Ming Chuan University has grown into a full-fledged, co-educational university and has broadened its international scope. In 2010, it became the first U.S.-accredited university in Asia.
“The parallels between Teachers College and Ming Chuan University are uncanny and fortuitous—the foundational focus on the empowerment and advancement of women, the immeasurable and lasting impact on society and the recognition of the merits of international cooperation and understanding—which are all particularly thoughtful and grounded focal points, especially in the midst of global volatility and uncertainty,” said Gary Lee, Founding Partner & COO, Anatole Investment Management Limited / Consultant, Ming Chuan University. “With two visionary institutions joining forces, it’s fun to imagine what exciting and boundless collective impact they may exert.”
Cooperation between Ming Chuan University and Teachers College was solidified in 2022, when professors Oren Pizmony-Levy and Nancy Green-Saraisky of the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College began working with Ming Chuan University on comparative research projects focused on the environment, sustainability and education; and international large-scale academic assessments.
In February, Green-Saraisky and Ming Chuan University colleagues presented findings from their first paper—“Perspectives on International Large-Scale Assessments: Interpreting Taiwan’s Media Coverage of the Program for International Student Assessment”—at the annual Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Washington, D.C.
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About Teachers College
Founded in 1887, Teachers College, Columbia University, the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, is perennially ranked among the nation’s best. Teachers College has a long history of involvement in education around the world. Teachers College’s mission is to create a smarter, healthier, and more equitable and peaceful world. Teachers College engages in research and prepares professionals in its three main areas of expertise—education, health and psychology—to work with public and private entities in local, national and global communities and inform public policy. Students choose from nearly 150 academic programs to earn graduate degrees, which are conferred by Columbia University. While it is closely affiliated with Columbia University and collaborates with it on many programs, the College is an independent, autonomous institution with a separate, independent governing board, president, and financial endowment.
About Ming Chuan University
Since its early days of concentrating on development in Taiwan, Ming Chuan University has expanded to include 10 schools with 43 departments (including one in Michigan, where Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language is taught). The University has about 560 full time and 820 part time faculty, about 16,700 undergraduate students, 1,500 master’s and 67 doctoral students. Ming Chuan University includes a Graduate School of Education focused on educational research and practice as well as meeting the needs of teachers in primary and secondary schools.