2010 SATU Presidents’ Forum Explored Development of High Education
Tainan, Taiwan, October 3rd, 2010
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng, the Secretary General of SATU Secretariat, has delivered a speech of “A Tale of Three Speeds: Challenges for SATU in the 21st Century” in the 2010 Presidents’ Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities (2010 SATU Presidents’ Forum), held on October 2nd and 3rd in International Conference Hall, Kuang-Fu Campus, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, revealing the challenges that higher education in Asia is currently facing.
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng, the Secretary General of SATU Secretariat, expressed in his opening remark, “I am quite in awe today to see some one hundred higher education leaders, many are presidents, under one roof. In my many years as an administrator in the United States, I do not recall ever seeing such a gathering, for sure not of this magnitude. Since coming to Asia, I noticed that SATU is one of the many such gatherings. This is clearly a manifestation of the higher education dynamism in Asia today, and it signals the progressive nature of the region.”
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng said, “SATU was inaugurated by former President Kao and later promoted with vigor by President Lai. SATU conference has emerged once every two years as an important brainstorming platform for a large fraction of universities leaders from one of the most robust and rapidly developing regions of the world. As such, I am confident that you will agree with me that we must collectively contemplate the unprecedented and quite unchartered responsibilities of higher education for this part of the world in the 21st century, a century on the one hand holds great promise for humanity and on the other guarantees enormous, rapid and unimaginable social, political and economic changes and upheavals. Even better, I hope we can collectively design a roadmap for universities to be relevant to the societies we are embedded in, the nations we belong to, and the world we are part of.”
Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng also mentioned, “To allow us to focus on the grand scenario, for this year’s SATU conference, we have given the mission as follows: ‘The next 10 Years: A Decade of Innovation, Advancement, and Sustainability.’ We did so because it is our humble belief that this mission is one of the most important challenges confronting 21st century universities. It is my hope that what I am about to say will perhaps give you some more fruits for thought.”
In the 21st century, there are serious grand challenges fronting humanity, including looming of pandemics, energy shortages, ignorance and severe poverty, lack of tolerance and hatred of fellow human beings. Universities in general, and universities in the Southeast and South Asia region in particular, are lighthouses dotting this turbulent sea, and it is the mission of the universities around the world to nurture non-silo thinkers with bold visions and innovative skill-sets.
In response to the theory of “flat world” raised by Mr. Thomas Friedman, a columnist for The New York Time, Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng pointed out, “The flat world is due to three very different ‘speeds.’ I made this argument a few years ago in an international conference of bioscience. Since then, I have thought more about it and would like to share it with everybody.”
“First, it is the speed of light. As everyone knows, Internet, a technology which leverages the speed of light, has fundamentally altered the way mankind thinks and interacts. For those not scientifically minded, speed of light is about 671 million miles per hour. For all practical purpose for our small planet, it is ‘instantaneous.’”
“Second, it is the speed to move large objects. In as recent as the early 50’s, students going from Asia to the United States to pursue higher education usually went by boat. That journey took three weeks to go from origin to destination. Students may have to accept that fact that they may not see their homeland for a long time or even to have entertain the thought that they may not see their families for a long time. This was one of the reasons why much tears were shed in the docks at departure. However, today’s transportation speed is roughly the speed of sound, which is 768 miles per hour. However, today, 21 day sea voyage has been reduced to between 10 to 12 hours of flight, from take-off to touch-down. This is roughly a factor of 40 increases in speed.”
“Finally, there is the subtle speed. It is the speed of turning vast amount of data and information into useful knowledge. Unlike just a few decades ago, data and information come to one in the form of paper publication. The ‘slowness’ of information allows a person greater freedom to spend more time to contemplate what was being read and turned it into some form of understanding and better still, knowledge and innovations. I think we can all agree that data and information are useless if they cannot be processed into knowledge. Today, that freedom of having more time is absent because data and information is coming to one like a tsunami. Comprehension of information is a complicated human intellectual effort. With this complication, how universities of today educate our students well enough so that they can in the shortest time digest vast amount of information and turn it into useful knowledge is a challenge in the 21st century.”
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng concluded in his speech, “In the 19th century, Europe reined supreme in nearly all forms of intellectual achievements. Universities in Europe were second to none then. In the 20th century, North America reined supreme and universities in that continent became the envy of the world. With wealth created in dizzying speed in Asia in the 21st century, I believe the ultimate challenge for Asian universities is to become the best universities in the world.”
The 2010 Presidents’ Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities is given the theme of “The Next Ten Years: A Decade of Innovation, Advancement, and Sustainability” and it has organized sessions and discussions of “Achieving Balance: Industry-Academia Collaboration”, “Natural Disasters and University Adaptive Measures”, “Higher Education: Global Collaboration or Competition?”, and “Bologna Process” to promote exchange and enhance internationalization of each university.
As the Southeast Asian region is facing critical challenges in economic, societal, and politic structures, there is a need to gather experts and educators to exchange ideas and face shared challenges. The excellence of universities is an important key to enhance a nation's competitiveness. Therefore, President Chiang Kao of National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) together with Presidents of prestigious universities of Southeast Asian countries initiated the "Presidents' Forum of Southeast Asia and Taiwan Universities" (SATU Presidents' Forum) to provide a venue for academics to share their valuable experiences to improve higher education and international cooperation in the region.
Hence, the Secretariat of SATU Presidents' Forum, which includes divisions of Secretariat, Academic Exchange, Student Affairs, and Industry-Academia Collaboration, has been established at National Cheng Kung University to coordinate and to promote the related activities.
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng, the Secretary General of SATU Secretariat, has delivered a speech of “A Tale of Three Speeds: Challenges for SATU in the 21st Century” in the 2010 Presidents’ Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities (2010 SATU Presidents’ Forum), held on October 2nd and 3rd in International Conference Hall, Kuang-Fu Campus, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, revealing the challenges that higher education in Asia is currently facing.
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng, the Secretary General of SATU Secretariat, expressed in his opening remark, “I am quite in awe today to see some one hundred higher education leaders, many are presidents, under one roof. In my many years as an administrator in the United States, I do not recall ever seeing such a gathering, for sure not of this magnitude. Since coming to Asia, I noticed that SATU is one of the many such gatherings. This is clearly a manifestation of the higher education dynamism in Asia today, and it signals the progressive nature of the region.”
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng said, “SATU was inaugurated by former President Kao and later promoted with vigor by President Lai. SATU conference has emerged once every two years as an important brainstorming platform for a large fraction of universities leaders from one of the most robust and rapidly developing regions of the world. As such, I am confident that you will agree with me that we must collectively contemplate the unprecedented and quite unchartered responsibilities of higher education for this part of the world in the 21st century, a century on the one hand holds great promise for humanity and on the other guarantees enormous, rapid and unimaginable social, political and economic changes and upheavals. Even better, I hope we can collectively design a roadmap for universities to be relevant to the societies we are embedded in, the nations we belong to, and the world we are part of.”
Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng also mentioned, “To allow us to focus on the grand scenario, for this year’s SATU conference, we have given the mission as follows: ‘The next 10 Years: A Decade of Innovation, Advancement, and Sustainability.’ We did so because it is our humble belief that this mission is one of the most important challenges confronting 21st century universities. It is my hope that what I am about to say will perhaps give you some more fruits for thought.”
In the 21st century, there are serious grand challenges fronting humanity, including looming of pandemics, energy shortages, ignorance and severe poverty, lack of tolerance and hatred of fellow human beings. Universities in general, and universities in the Southeast and South Asia region in particular, are lighthouses dotting this turbulent sea, and it is the mission of the universities around the world to nurture non-silo thinkers with bold visions and innovative skill-sets.
In response to the theory of “flat world” raised by Mr. Thomas Friedman, a columnist for The New York Time, Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng pointed out, “The flat world is due to three very different ‘speeds.’ I made this argument a few years ago in an international conference of bioscience. Since then, I have thought more about it and would like to share it with everybody.”
“First, it is the speed of light. As everyone knows, Internet, a technology which leverages the speed of light, has fundamentally altered the way mankind thinks and interacts. For those not scientifically minded, speed of light is about 671 million miles per hour. For all practical purpose for our small planet, it is ‘instantaneous.’”
“Second, it is the speed to move large objects. In as recent as the early 50’s, students going from Asia to the United States to pursue higher education usually went by boat. That journey took three weeks to go from origin to destination. Students may have to accept that fact that they may not see their homeland for a long time or even to have entertain the thought that they may not see their families for a long time. This was one of the reasons why much tears were shed in the docks at departure. However, today’s transportation speed is roughly the speed of sound, which is 768 miles per hour. However, today, 21 day sea voyage has been reduced to between 10 to 12 hours of flight, from take-off to touch-down. This is roughly a factor of 40 increases in speed.”
“Finally, there is the subtle speed. It is the speed of turning vast amount of data and information into useful knowledge. Unlike just a few decades ago, data and information come to one in the form of paper publication. The ‘slowness’ of information allows a person greater freedom to spend more time to contemplate what was being read and turned it into some form of understanding and better still, knowledge and innovations. I think we can all agree that data and information are useless if they cannot be processed into knowledge. Today, that freedom of having more time is absent because data and information is coming to one like a tsunami. Comprehension of information is a complicated human intellectual effort. With this complication, how universities of today educate our students well enough so that they can in the shortest time digest vast amount of information and turn it into useful knowledge is a challenge in the 21st century.”
NCKU Senior Executive Vice-President Da-Hsuan Feng concluded in his speech, “In the 19th century, Europe reined supreme in nearly all forms of intellectual achievements. Universities in Europe were second to none then. In the 20th century, North America reined supreme and universities in that continent became the envy of the world. With wealth created in dizzying speed in Asia in the 21st century, I believe the ultimate challenge for Asian universities is to become the best universities in the world.”
The 2010 Presidents’ Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities is given the theme of “The Next Ten Years: A Decade of Innovation, Advancement, and Sustainability” and it has organized sessions and discussions of “Achieving Balance: Industry-Academia Collaboration”, “Natural Disasters and University Adaptive Measures”, “Higher Education: Global Collaboration or Competition?”, and “Bologna Process” to promote exchange and enhance internationalization of each university.
As the Southeast Asian region is facing critical challenges in economic, societal, and politic structures, there is a need to gather experts and educators to exchange ideas and face shared challenges. The excellence of universities is an important key to enhance a nation's competitiveness. Therefore, President Chiang Kao of National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) together with Presidents of prestigious universities of Southeast Asian countries initiated the "Presidents' Forum of Southeast Asia and Taiwan Universities" (SATU Presidents' Forum) to provide a venue for academics to share their valuable experiences to improve higher education and international cooperation in the region.
Hence, the Secretariat of SATU Presidents' Forum, which includes divisions of Secretariat, Academic Exchange, Student Affairs, and Industry-Academia Collaboration, has been established at National Cheng Kung University to coordinate and to promote the related activities.
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