Deputy Vice President for International Affairs Bennett Fu and Office of International Affairs Manager Lily Hsu represented NTU at the first higher education fairs to be organized by Taiwan's Ministry of Education in Myanmar this past July. Coordinated by National Chi Nan University, the 2016 Myanmar-Taiwan Higher Education Fair was held in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay during July 2-7. Thirty-six Taiwanese institutions of higher education participated in the two fairs.

NTU took part in the events in step with the central government's New Southbound Policy. In addition to seeking outstanding international students to recruit, the university's goals also included establishing ties with NTU alumni in Myanmar.

The trip marked the first time that an MOE delegation has visited Myanmar since Taiwan extended visa-free entry to Myanmar citizens in March. Due to remaining restrictions on promotional activities in Myanmar, the organizers did not publicize the fairs through the local media, but relied instead on Facebook and other Internet channels, the University of Yangon and University of Mandalay, and NTU alumni and ethnic-Chinese schools in Myanmar.

Both fairs drew remarkable turnouts and the NTU booths enjoyed a steady stream of students who were eager to learn about NTU. Most of the students who attended the fairs were second- and third-year high school students and students of ethnic-Chinese schools. Medicine, management, and chemistry were the fields of student that the students expressed the most interest in entering.

Numerous NTU alumni in Myanmar turned up to assist the NTU delegation during the fairs. Most of these alumni were overseas ethnic-Chinese students who had graduated from NTU. As the NTU Alumni Association of Myanmar had just been established in June, the two fairs provided the first opportunities for contact between the association and NTU and so more alumni were enticed to join the association. The association's influence will help to raise the visibility and image of Taiwan and NTU in Myanmar.

While in Myanmar, Deputy Vice President Fu also met and exchanged words of encouragement with representatives of ethnic-Chinese schools, including Mandalay Confucius School, Lashio Guo Wen Chinese School, and Myitkyina Yu Cheng High School. These schools offer instruction in traditional Chinese characters and promote Chinese culture, so their graduates are proficient in Mandarin and well qualified to attend university classes in Taiwan.

NTU has not admitted any students from Myanmar for the last five years due to visa restrictions in Taiwan. Having broken the ice with the delegation's visit, however, NTU looks forward to developing closer ties and cooperation with the NTU Alumni Association of Myanmar in the effort to attract Myanmar students to study at NTU.