Visit to Auckland University of Technology Campuses by President of Nanhua University

BLIA North Island Chapter members had the honour of accompanying the President of Nanhua University, Mr Tsong-Ming Lin. He visited two of the three campuses of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) on 16 June 2014. The visit began with the North Shore Campus where the team was warmly welcomed by Andy Begg, Associate Professor and Programme Leader for Postgraduate Education and Linda Danniell, Lecturer and Programme Leader for Adult and Tertiary Education.

Andy and Linda began the meeting by explaining the 3 campuses of AUT these are located on the North Shore, in Auckland downtown and at Manukau. The North Shore campus houses the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Health and Environment Sciences. Mr. Lin asked about entrance prerequisites of various schools of studies. The team also exchanged ideas on the different education systems between Taiwan and New Zealand. The visit to the North Shore campus was completed with a tour of the campus facilities which included its library, classrooms and different schools.

Linda later led the BLIA team to AUT’s Auckland downtown campus. The team was warmly greeted by Chris Whittington, Senior Lecture of the School of Engineering and of the Faculty of Design and Creative Studies. This was followed by a series of meetings held in the School of Engineering which began with meeting with Enrico Haemmerle, Head of School of Engineering and then followed by meeting with Loulin Huang, Associate Professor of the School of Engineering. Enrico explained the various opportunities and challenges facing the School of Engineering, as well as the support it is receiving from the NZ Education Ministry so that it can train more engineers to support the nation’s economic growth.

Loulin spoke of the robotic engineering and automation research he is working on and the opportunities robotic and automation engineering could offer to the industries particularly the agricultural and farming sector.

Mr. Lin talked about Fo Guang University Association which comprises of 4 universities. These are the University of the West in USA, Nanhua University in Taiwan, Wollongong Education Institute in Australia and a new Fo Guang university in Manila. He expressed his plan to conduct a student exchange programme with other universities such as the AUT and hoped to be able to work on this possibility with AUT’s School of Engineering.

The BLIA team was later shown AUT’s Auckland downtown campus. The tour began with a visit to its 3-D printing facility, the School of Art and Design and concluded with a tour of the student cafeteria and common areas.

The visit provided an insight into the management and structure of AUT and Nanhua and paved way for many exciting opportunities for collaboration in the future.