A delegation from Ryukoku University in Japan visited Taylor’s University to learn about how such a new university has quickly established its international reputation.
While Taylor’s can look back on some 47-years of history since it was established in Malaysia, Ryukoku University has 377-years of history in Japan. Despite the rather obvious age differences, it was a common interest in the globalisation of education that brought a delegation from their university to visit the Taylor’s Lakeside campus. Ryukoku University was originally founded in 1639 as a Buddhist seminary. Today, it is a multi-campus university with some 20,000 students. It is a university that has largely been very Japan-centric in its focus. However times are changing, and they are now interested to look at the international development strategies of other universities.
The delegation was led by Mr. Atsuo Hisashi from their Centre for the Promotion of Global Education, and their specific interests were centered around : the future development of global education; the importance of international university rankings; and international partnerships. They had already been to New Zealand to visit more traditional universities such as the University of Auckland and Waikato University, as well as to Singapore to visit institutions such as Nanyang Technological University.Given that within just a few years Taylor’s University has globally established its reputation by achieving QS 4-Stars and a ranking of QS Asia Universities at #179, Ryukoku were interested about the strategy behind the success of such a relatively young private university. Given that we will soon be signing a MoU agreement with them, Angela Pok, Vice-President of Student Experience, and Prof Perry Hobson, the PVC Global Engagement, were happy to share their experiences and insights with them.
Following up from the visit, Mr Atsuo Hisashi sent a note of thanks for the “detailed explanation about the strategy in regards to your World University Rankings, QS Stars and International collaboration programmes of Taylor's University. We could learn a lot from you how to manage [our] university reputation…….Thank you again for your valuable time and information”. Angela Pok, said that, “we are looking forward to formally signing the MoU for student exchange with them”.
