University of Oslo hopes to become a research hub of Taiwan studies in Northern Europe
Stockholm, July 23 (CNA) The Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) in Norway’s University of Oslo has announced that it will be offering numerous Taiwan-related seminar courses between 2023 and 2025, with hopes of becoming the research hub of Taiwanese studies in Northern Europe.
IKOS announced that starting in January 2023, the department will offer a Taiwan Research Seminar Program, with subjects on early history, modern history, politics, cross-Taiwan Strait relations, indigenous peoples, languages, religions, gender and film.
Experts and authorities engaged in studies on Taiwan’s indigenous peoples and Buddhism inspired environmental research will be invited to the university as short-term guest lecturers, while postgraduate students will have the opportunity to go to Taiwan for short-term research.
The brains behind the inception of the program is Professor Halvor Eifring, who teaches China Studies at IKOS.
According to Eifring, the program is well underway for its official initiation with the support of the Taipei Mission in Sweden.
The de-facto embassy of Taiwan helped IKOS in facilitating education-related cooperation with many Taiwanese partners to introduce Mandarin language teaching assistants, organize Mandarin language proficiency tests, and provide students with scholarships to study and conduct research in Taiwan.
The first batch of IKOS students to Taiwan will arrive this fall and stay from six months to a year to learn Chinese at the National Chengchi University and the National Taiwan Normal University.
To read more: Focus Taiwan
