On September 20th, the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium held a Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) Leaders Joint Meeting, attended by young TSA leaders and Ministry of Education (MOE) scholarship awardees. The meeting aims to provide important information related to Taiwanese students’ life, studies in Belgium and the Netherlands and their future career development. Ambassador Roy Chun Lee particularly encouraged students to act as diplomats, actively promoting greater awareness of Taiwan among broader audiences, making friends with foreigners and leverage their knowledge to make meaningful contributions to Taiwan in the future.
These young TSA leaders and scholarship awardees first introduced themselves and the number of Taiwanese students in their universities. Colleagues from the Representative Office briefed the participants with the process of applying for passports and explained how they assist overseas Taiwanese citizens in emergencies. They also introduced Contact Taiwan platform, which provides job-matching services, personalized consulting, and information on Taiwan's talent-building policies, and how they enhance the economic relations between Taiwan and the EU. Various programs targeting advanced science and research talents, such as the Columbus Project, the Overseas Project for Post-Graduate Research, etc were also presented. The Education Division finally introduced the Yushan Fellow/Yushan Young Fellow Program, three MOE Scholarships, the MOE subsidies for TSAs to hold various activities, encouraged them to promote Taiwanese culture and studying in Taiwan and kindly reminded them of anti-fraud measures.
The meeting ended with the introduction of the work with European Parliament and a guided tour to Parlamentarium (the museum for European Parliament), which helped them understand the path towards European cooperation, how the European Parliament works and what its Member States are doing to address the challenges of today’s Europe.
The above-mentioned TSA leaders come from various universities, including KU Leuven, UCLouvain, Ghent University, the Free University of Brussels, the Royal Conservatory of Music of Brussels, University of Antwerp, University of Liège, University of Maastricht, University of Wageningen, Nerode University of Business and Commerce, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, University of Amsterdam, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Delft University of Technology. The six scholarship awardees were recipients of Taiwan-KULeuven Scholarship, Taiwan-EUR Scholarship, and the MOE EU Scholarship.
