Six prestigious Chinese mainland universities will launch an undergraduate exchange program with "National Taiwan University" (NTU) next year, according to NTU President Si-Chen Lee.

 

Lee made the remarks at the Asian University Presidents Forum held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The SJTU and NTU signed an agreement on the undergraduate exchange program Sunday.

 

"Agreements with the other five universities will be completed by the end of the year," Lee said. They are Tsinghua, Peking, Nanjing, Fudan and Renmin University of China.

 

Lee said, "This exchange program, different from summer camps or forum events, focuses on undergraduate teaching".

 

Every semester each Chinese mainland university can send two undergraduates to study at NTU and in return they'll send two undergraduates to each Chinese mainland university.

 

The exchange students will be selected by the universities and will receive free tuition with no restriction on what major they choose, according to Lee.

 

NTU, founded in 1928, is the best university in Taiwan. As early as 1995 they started exchanging graduate students with Peking University but until now had no such program for undergraduates.

 

Lee said Taiwan and the Chinese mainland had the same roots and were free of language and culture barriers. He added that NTU would gradually increase the number of students involved in exchanges.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2006)