A warm welcome to students of the 2014 ACT program

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the popular ACT Global Business Programme, a joint educational programme offered by the University of Victoria (BC, Canada), the Johannes Kepler University (Linz, Austria) and National Sun Yat-Sen University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan). All 35 students enrolled for this programme had relocated from Canada to Taiwan and attended the orientation day for the Taiwan module on Friday, November 14th.

Professor Lee Chin-tarn, Dean of the College of Management at Sun Yat-sen University, kick started the day by giving his warmest welcome to this year’s students, he also told the students that ‘learning should not be limited in classrooms’ by encouraging everyone to go out and explore this part of the world during their stay. He then introduced a new face to this year’s module - Professor Wanta Tseng, former deputy director for IMF’s Asia and Pacific department, will lead the ‘Asian Business Context’ course this year.  

Professor Evelyne Glaser and Professor Te-min Chang also gave their welcome remarks to this year’s students.

Professor Jason Huang, one of the co-founders of ACT programme, gave a short talk on ‘What kind of manager will you be’ which was very well received by the students. The small exercise designed to identify leadership styles saw students running around with a piece of paper eager to find out whether they are a controller, supporter, promoter or an analyser in the behavioural matrix.

After coffee break, students were asked to introduce their team mates and share their thoughts on what they had learned in Canada and what they expected to learn from the Taiwan module. As the programme is consisted of students from the three universities across three continents, it may not be surprising to find that ‘cultural differences’ is one of the main things learned from the programme so far. Many of them expected to have a better understanding of business environment in Asia by the end of the Taiwan module.

Just before lunch, students were given an overview of the course schedule for the next 3 months and a fun, useful introduction to the campus and Kaohsiung city so they can make study and travel plans in advance.

Lunch was served in buffet style with choices of international food. After lunch, students were divided into three groups for the campus tour to familiarise themselves with the new campus where they will be spending a lot of time studying and playing in the coming months. We wish them the very best of luck and success.

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About NSYSU-UVic-JKU ACT Program

Established in 2005 in response to increasing demand for global business managers, the ACT program provides students a unique and creative opportunity to develop superior academic knowledge, a global mindset and professional, cultural and social competences required for today’s fast growing global economy.

Participating students from the three partner universities will study together as one class, spending an equal amount of time in each of the countries. At the end of the joint program students will receive a Certificate of Completion signed by all three institutions.