In the spirit of learning from one's peers, NTHU sent two groups of faculty members and administrative staff to visit leading universities in northeastern Asian. The first group, led by Vice President Ming-Chuen Yip and Secretary-General Mao-Jiun Wang, visited Osaka University, Nara Women's University, University of Tsukuba in Japan and Seoul National University in Korea during their week-long study tour (July 26 - Aug. 2 ). The second group, led by Vice President Shih-Lin Chang and Dean Wei-Chung Wang of the Office of International Affairs also went to Osaka, Nara and Seoul universities but they also visited Nagoya University and Yhee-Hwa Women's University.

Most of the universities visited by the two groups are sister universities of NTHU and were most cordial in receiving the visiting NTHU groups. In addition to touring the campuses and discussing measures to further enhance the cooperative relations between NTHU and the hosting institutions, each of these two teams had their special areas of interests. The first group focused on issues related to the privatization of public/national universities. Osaka University was formerly one of the top national universities of Japan and has successfully transformed into an independent institution of higher education. As many of the public universities in Taiwan are under the mandate of the Ministry of Education to prepare themselves to become an "independent legal entity," Osaka's success story has provided the visitors with many valuable lessons.

The second group embarked on the 6^th and returned on the 12^th of September. They focused on the issues of campus internationalization, student advising as well as performance review of academic units within the university system. As leading university in Korea, the Seoul National University has been very successfully not only in attracting the best students from within Korea but also many international students from a large numbers of countries. Likewise, NTHU is making a concerted effort to further internationalize its campus by recruiting more international students from a greater number of countries. The opportunity to compare and discuss their international programs with sister institutions in Korea and Japan has been a very valuable experience and a source of inspiration for members of the second study tour group.