For the future development of Taiwan’s highly-evaluated vocational education, Taiwan’s universities have been endeavouring to launch new cooperations with leading universities across the world.

With great appreciation for the support from British Council, we are very delighted that the signing of MoU between National Formosa University and Brunel University London is witnessed by Ms. Catherine Nettleton, the Representative of British Office Taipei, Ms. Susana Galvan, Country Director of British Council Taipei and Mr. Tony Lee, First Education Secretary of Ministry of Education. This MoU is set to launch a genuine partnership between the two universities in the field of advanced manufacturing, through student exchange, staff exchange, joint training and technology sharing.

Given the credit for its distinctive Smart Machine and Intelligent Manufacturing Research Centre, NFU is one of the 6 universities selected by the MOE to participate in the ‘‘Technical Universities’ International Talent Cultivation University Pilot Project’’. The president of NFU, Dr Jywe Wen-Yuh, emphasises that NFU’s successful cooperations with world-renowned corporates, universities, research institutions to promote overseas internships, prove the achievement NFU has reached in the field of smart machine and intelligent manufacturing, therefore it is widely recognised the university has enough research and development capacity to offer.

The MOE supports and strongly believes such cooperation will lead Taiwan’s vocational education system into a new level in the world stage so the success could create greater chances for Taiwan’s enterprises to seize a share in the world’s blue ocean market of smart machinery. 

With the launch of ‘‘Industry 4.0 — Smart Machine and Smart Manufacturing for International Talent Cultivation Programme’’, NFU aims to bring our teams up to world benchmark, by introducing successful models of professional talent cultivation in other advanced countries, so to prepare students to become top professionals with international mobility. It is promising that the sufficient and high-quality talents for the industry will be provided through the programme. Brunel University London is ideal to be a part of this grand project. 

Each year NFU will select up to twenty students to participate a nine-month programme, which includes a three-month intensive language course, in terms of improving learning capacity and adaptability, and six months of laboratory and industrial internship offered by Brunel University’s Micro/Nano Manufacturing Theme. The Theme has long established collaborations with world-renowned corporations such as SIEMEMS, Rolls-Royce, P&G, Dyson, and KISTLER. 

Each nominated student will receive full-scale tutoring and individual supervision from the Theme members at Brunel University. NFU students will be able to access latest skills in the industries, to strengthen their international competitiveness and mobility. In addition, future NFU graduates who ever participated in internship under the support of International Talent Cultivation programme will be qualified to receive an extra BSc degree in Smart Machine and Intelligent Manufacturing apart from his or her original bachelor degree. 

NFU is also committed to send faculty staff to the Theme for long-term technology exchange, collaborative research projects, in order to expand mutual partnership interests. 

The MOE supports and strongly believes such cooperation will lead Taiwan’s vocational education system into a new level in the world stage so the success could create greater chances for Taiwan’s enterprises to seize a share in the world’s blue ocean market of smart machinery.

About NFU International Collaboration 

Apart from the cooperation with Brunel University London, NFU also launched similar partnership with the Laser Processing Research Centre at The University of Manchester, the Center for High Performance Manufacturing at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Aachen University and Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (Fraunhofer IPT) in Germany. IPT is not only the heart of Germany’s Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing development, but the world’s top research and development centre for manufacturing technology.

About Brunel University London 

Brunel University is a famous international university, which ranks 36th in International Outlook in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2019. It is also the first university in the UK provides Sandwich Degrees. The university's Placement & Careers Centre won three consecutive years at the National Placement and Internship Awards. In addition, Brunel University’s Micro/ Nano Manufacturing Theme has closely collaborated with various multinational corporations. Their college students are able to have paid internships for a year. It gives students opportunities to put what they have learned into practice. We highly expect this cooperation will offer students international internship experiences through the connection between university and transnational corporations.