TAIWAN – On the sidelines of The 2026 Annual Meeting of the Geography Society on 25 April 2026, delegations from Universitas Gadjah Mada and National Changhua University of Education held a strategic meeting to discuss opportunities for strengthening academic cooperation between the two institutions. The meeting was attended by the Head of the Department of Geography NCUE, Assoc. Professor Chen Yi-Chin and team, as well as the Head of the Doctoral Program in Environmental Science UGM, Prof. Eko Haryono, together with the UGM delegation. The discussion took place in a warm atmosphere, focusing on the development of collaborative programs that could be implemented in the near future.
(Activity Documentation)
Several cooperation agendas were discussed, including the organization of a summer course, student exchange programs, and professor as well as lecturer exchanges. These initiatives are expected to broaden students’ international academic experiences while encouraging scientific collaboration among researchers from both universities.
On that occasion, Prof. Eko Haryono presented the structure of UGM’s Doctoral Program in Environmental Science, which is designed to be flexible and adaptive to students’ needs. He explained that the doctoral program offers two study pathways, namely by course and by research, allowing students to pursue their studies according to their academic needs and respective research directions.
According to him, this scheme enables students to develop their academic capacity more optimally, both through strengthening theoretical foundations and deepening research competencies. This flexible education model is considered an important basis for building academic cooperation opportunities with international partners.
Through this meeting, UGM and NCUE demonstrated a shared commitment to expanding cross-border higher education networks and creating collaborative programs with tangible impacts on the advancement of knowledge, particularly in the fields of environment, geography, and sustainability.
This activity also supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4: Quality Education through strengthening access to international education, SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals through inter-university collaboration, and SDG 13: Climate Action through the development of sustainable environmental research cooperation.
Author: Student Mobility Program Team