2023/06/09 11:01 [Academic]Visit of Professor Servais from UCL

Visit of Professor Servais from UCL: a new milestone for future cooperation

 

Louvain-la-Neuve University (UCL) is one of our most important sister universities in Europe and French-speaking countries. According to Times Higher Education, it is ranked 170th in the World University Ranking for 2023. Over the past decade, we have organized various activities to foster bilateral relationships in academic and pedagogical domains for students, teachers, and researchers, covering not only linguistics but also philosophy, history, Catholicism, and culture. This year, we have invited Professor Paul Servais, a renowned professor emeritus in history and philosophy, to Fu Jen once again after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Servais has been invited to Fu Jen on multiple occasions. As usual, we have conducted several important activities in collaboration with him, including 12 hours of co-teaching intensive courses, a workshop with teachers, and three academic cooperation programming meetings. These activities took place from April 10th to April 17th. Firstly, the co-teaching intensive course focused on comparing cultures in Europe, China, and Taiwan, with this year's topic being "Family." Professor Servais introduced the origins and evolution of family in Western catholic societies, as well as the challenges faced by modern Western societies such as declining birth rates, increased divorce rates, single-parent families, blended families, and same-sex parent families. In the second part of the course, Taiwanese students presented their group study findings on Family in Chinese and Taiwanese societies. Professor Servais reviewed and provided valuable insights on these presentations, benefiting our students.

 
Secondly, a conference and teacher research workshop were organized. Professor Servais delivered a keynote speech on "History, Time, Writing." Participants from Fu Jen and external researchers presented their ideas related to their respective areas of expertise, including philosophy, history, French writing teaching, and even artificial intelligence. Each participant shared their perspectives on how history and time can be effectively written to ensure better preservation and transmission of historical knowledge. Professor Servais then guided the participants in summarizing the ideas into concrete research directions, with both sides committed to organizing conferences, collaborative research projects, and intensive courses based on this new axis. This approach follows previous successful collaborations, such as research on Father Vincent Lebbe from 2014 to 2023 and Taiwan Studies from 2020 to 2022. Thirdly, Professor Servais has been the main reliable point of contact for UCL for over a decade. With his help and coordination, both sides have deepened our cooperation through concrete action plans, including serial conferences on Father Vincent Lebbe, serial courses on Taiwan Studies, and co-teaching intensive courses held for more than five years. The double Master's degree program offered by the Department of French is one of UCL's most successful projects in Asia. UCL is currently evaluating its cooperation programs in Asia and has discontinued non-productive or inefficient programs in Taiwan to focus on successful and efficient ones. Our double Master's degree program has seen an average of two students sent to UCL, and two Belgian students have also come to FJCU. Most of these candidates from both sides have successfully completed their double degrees. The program's success is attributed to thorough preparation, meticulous guidance for students, and the high-quality courses offered by both institutions. 

 

We can also emphasize that the team of UCL, with three other professors of the Department of History, has presented this time in a working meeting a brand-new program for foreign students. It’s a convertible module for History and European Union Studies, students can choose to take a full English program, full French program, or even combined English and French program. This is indeed a very interesting and attractive program. In order to come up with an equivalent program, we’ve invited the Faculty of Liberal Arts to join the discussion. With the Faculty of Foreign Languages, both faculties will try to offer a block of EMI courses for students from UCL. This is a brand-new challenge and chance for FJCU, its success would certainly contribute to the internationalization of both faculties, so does it for the UCL.

 

During this visit by Professor Servais in 2023, UCL and FJCU have reflected on the successful actions of the past decade and have jointly prepared for more concrete action plans in the coming decade. We would like to thank Professor Servais, an old friend of FJCU, for his uninterrupted effort for bilateral cooperation, which constitutes a very solid base for future development!