USTB Bridges the Strait between Creative Youths

On July 1st, the 2014 Cross-strait Ideas Forum for the Youth was inaugurated in USTB. Over 200 teachers and students from 17 universities across the strait attended the opening ceremony presided over by USTB President Zhang Xinxin. On the ceremony, Xu Bin, deputy-director of the Office for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Education, and USTB Chancellor Luo Weidong, delivered welcome speeches respectively to the audience. Lu Feng from Tsinghua University and Cheh-Shyh Ting from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) made special reports on invitation.

According to the host, three features of this year’s forum should be noticed. First, the forum is diversified in style, rich in content and closely tied to academics. Depending on its advantage in materials science, energy science and environmental sciences and drawing upon its abundant academic resources, USTB has invited teachers and students with multiple academic backgrounds to this yearly academic discussion. Second, the forum has a distinct theme and meets the requirements of its time. Considering our national development guidelines and needs, the forum has paid attention to the heatedly discussed topics and is held under the theme of “Environmental Sciences and Green Development”. Third, this event has an extensive coverage. Its participants are invited from universities all across Taiwan, mainly those in Taichung and Tainan. Most of the participants are university students and some are young and middle-aged scholars.

Such activities as seminars, competition of scientific and technological projects, theme visits and field researches will also take place during the forum.

This cross-strait exchange activity has been held seven times since 2004. To date it has attracted nearly one thousand students and teachers from 38 Taiwanese universities to attend, gradually becoming a brand activity of USTB. This forum has been responded favorably by students and teachers in Taiwan, thereby expanding and deepening their educational and cultural cooperation and communication with their counterparts in the mainland.

This forum has so far formed two distinctive features. It combines academics with activity as teachers and students from two sides of the strait exchange their academic ideas during various activities. It also combines activity with education: each year the forum chooses its theme from the pool of hot social topics, hoping to inspire young students’ sense of responsibility and of service with their communication between each other. 

Back to top