Asia University (AU) held a President and Rector Forum on University Social Responsibility (USR) on May 13. The forum has invited seven university leaders from six countries which included Israel, Japan, Portugal, India, and Indonesia to be the forum speakers. The theme of this forum is “University Social Impact in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) and Regional Revitalization.” Regarding the theme, each speaker gave a specific topic to share their experiences. In the meantime, AU also signed an USR Alliance with the presidents and the rectors of these universities.

Taking the advantage of this opportunity, AU President, Jeffrey J. P. Tsai, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) of mutual cooperation with each of the Vice Rector of NOVA University at Lisbon, Portugal, Prof. João Amaro de Matos, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, India, Prof. Appa Rao Podile, respectively. The aims of these MOUs are to enhance the academic cooperations between the schools, to provide more chances of study and internships for students, and moreover, to strengthen the common research platforms for teachers.

For the forum, AU invited the President of the Israel Institute of Technology at Technion, Prof. Peretz Lavie; the President of Kochi University, Japan, Prof. Katsutoshi Sakurai; the Rector of Universitas Muhammadiyah at Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Prof. Gunawan Budiyanto; the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, India, Prof. Appa Rao Podile; the Vice Rector of NOVA University at Lisbon, Portugal, Prof. João Amaro de Matos; the President of Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan, Prof. Jong-Tsun Huang; and, the President of China Medical University (CMU), Taiwan, Prof. Mien-Chie Hung, to participate this activity.

At the opening ceremony, the Founder and Chairman of the Board Trustees of AU, Prof. Chang-Hai Tsai, gave a welcome speech. He mentioned that to practice social responsibilities for sustainable development, AU has put lots of efforts on innovation, passing on tradition, and applying knowledge and technology to benefit the mankind. Meanwhile, AU President Tsai pointed out that university responsibility has become a focal point for global higher education in recent years. In the last year, AU held an International President and Rector Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During the forum period, AU signed the USR Alliance with National Taiwan University and eight other universities from Taiwan and seven foreign countries. It was expected, though, AI to solve problems of sustainable human developments. In this year, regarding the SDGs of the UN, AU proposed the prevention and treatment of internet addiction and other four specific plans for place-making and international cooperation to discuss the university social responsibility and impact.

President Tsai emphasized that AU, which was founded only 18 years ago, has entered a number of international academic rankings. Recently, AU is ranked to be in the top 17 in the nation, and in the top 5 in the private universities in the 2019 Asia University Ranking by the UK Times Higher Education (THE) Report. In fact, AU is also ranked to be the No. 107 best in the world, and the No. 4 best in Taiwan in the 2019 University Impact Ranking by the THE Report. This ranking result shows the efforts that AU has put on the USR have been affirmed by the international organizations. President Tsai also expressed that AU aims to discuss USR and strategies of sustainable developments from the views of world -famous university leaders in this forum. 

In the beginning of the forum, the President of the Israel Institute of Technology at Technion talked on the topic of “the Role of Universities in Economic Developments,”－ he shared the role of their school played in the innovation technology domain in Israel. Secondly, the President of Kochi University shared the challenge and mission they faced－ to integrate the resources of regional universities in Kochi. Thirdly, the Rector of University Muhammadiyah at Yogyakarta, Indonesia, discussed the USR through the point of disaster awareness. Fourthly, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, India, analyzed how the universities in India used resources to implement the USR. Following the agenda, the Vice Rector of NOVA University at Lisbon, Portugal, gave a speech entitled “Academic Leadership and the Business Gateway to the Chinese and Portuguese Speaking World.” After that, the President of CMU, Taiwan, took different sections from education, social service, place-making, and sustainable developments to share the social influence of CMU. And the last agenda of the forum is a panel discussion which was hosted by the President of Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan. The aim is to exchange experiences and find out consensus of the university social impact in the context of the SDGs of the UN and Regional Revitalization.