NewsFH Upper Austria, Linz Campus

Taiwan meets Upper Austria

University and political leaders from Taiwan visit FH Upper Austria Wels Campus


On June 21, the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria had the honor of hosting the Taiwanese Delegation of Technological & Vocational Universities at Wels Campus. Representatives of the Taiwanese Education Ministry as well as Presidents and Deans of renowned Taiwanese Universities spent 4 days in Austria to meet partner institutions and discuss further cooperation activities.

The intensified cooperation between Taiwanese and Austrian Technological and Vocational Universities started with a delegation visit to Taiwan in November 2015. During that visit, the “2015 Taiwan-Austria Vocational Higher Education Forum” covering “New Philosophy of Vocational Higher Education, Unification of Learning and Practice, and Enhancement of Student Global Mobility” was held. Dr. Burkhard Stadlmann, Vice-Dean for International Affairs at the FH Upper Austria, School of Engineering, who participated in the Taiwan visit: “This first delegation visit provided us with the opportunity of exchanging new cooperation ideas with existing partner institutions and meeting new potential partners, which was a very important step towards intensifying our future cooperation with Taiwan.” As a follow-up and to continue the cooperation intensification, a delegation visit to Austria was scheduled for June 2016.

The Taiwanese delegation arrived to Vienna on June 19 to and spent their first day getting to know Austria and its culture. The next day, the Austria-Taiwan Vocational Higher Education Forum: “New Era of Technological and Vocational Higher Education: Advancing Global Talent Cultivation and Higher Education Quality” was held in Vienna. During this Forum, Ms. Regina Aichinger, Executive Vice President of FH Upper Austria, gave a speech about “The University of Applied Sciences in Austria: Analysis of an innovative bargaining and negotiation Governance Approach”. Afterwards, a panel discussion focusing on “Innovation and knowledge transfer between Universities of Applied Sciences and regional economy in Austria” took place, which gave all participants the opportunity to discuss the presented best practices and share experiences.

On June 21, the Taiwanese delegation visited the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria at its School of Engineering in Wels. The morning was spent with interesting presentations and detailed cooperation discussions as well as a long visit to several laboratories on campus. The Taiwanese visitors were especially interested in intensifying joint research & development activities. For this purpose, FH Upper Austria extended one existing cooperation agreement with National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) and signed two new cooperation agreements with National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech) and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST) – all in the fields of ICT, Management, Engineering and Applied Health and Social Sciences.

Dr. Gerald Reisinger, President of FH Upper Austria, is pleased with the increased cooperation level with Taiwan: “These new university-wide partnerships are a very important step in our internationalization efforts and offer our students the opportunity to study and do reserach at excellent institutions in Taiwan – a country which is certainly increasingly important for the Austrian economy. We are therefore proud to extend our Taiwanese partner network and intensify cooperation with those institutions!”