Under the pneumonia epidemic, in order to deeply care about the life and study of students, the International Master’s Program of Applied Economics and Social Development (IMES) of the CSS held a teacher-student gathering on November 11^th in English Corner. Dean of the Social Sciences College Dr. Min-Hsiu Chiang, Associate Dean Dr. Jen-Te Pai and Dr. Tong-Yi Huang, and teacher from the Department of Economics Dr. Po-Chun Huang all took the time to attend. The event was hosted by the director of IMES Dr. Mei-Chuan Wei.

Dean Chiang specially came to meet with students in the program. In addition, to greet everyone, he also cared about whether the lives and studies of the students were affected by the epidemic, especially international students. Associate Dean Huang participated in the whole process. On top of explaining to the students what academic research resources the College of Social Sciences provides to the students, he listened carefully to the students’ opinions on the course and the college. Dr. Huang from the Department of Economics is a teacher of labor economics in IMES, and also a tutor in the program which is very popular among students also present in the gathering.

Program Director Wei said that this year, due to the epidemic, the international program, which is dominated by international students, will be a big challenge, especially since the enrollment and registration process continues until the beginning of the semester because of the need to cooperate with the government’s policy of opening up border to international students. She said that in the case of the IMES program, many students are very uncertain about whether they can be admitted as scheduled when they sign up. Indeed, a few foreign students admitted have decided to postpone their admission due to the epidemic. As for the overseas students who are determined to study and register, they need to be isolated for two weeks and self-management for one week after entering the country, the beginning of the semester is even more complicated. However, Dr. Wei is very grateful for the support and cooperation of all the teachers in the course. She said that the teacher-student gathering was postponed until today, mainly because many first-year students were unable to participate in orientation due to immigration isolation.

During the teacher-student exchanges, the students of the program said that this school is the preferred choice for international students, and they also expressed their high affirmation of the learning opportunities provided by the College of Social Sciences’ International Programs. The first-year master student from Nicaragua especially emphasized that although there are courses related to public administration and policy analysis in Nicaragua, there is no department focused on economic analysis. Taking courses in IMES will surely help future work in the public sector after returning to their home country.

Several students from Mexico unanimously expressed their wish to add courses related to data analysis, mainly because they all have plans to start a business in the future, and hope to learn more about data analysis methods in order to help the company’s business decisions. Mexican students who have studied Chinese at the Chinese Language Center of our school especially hope to have internship opportunities, especially in trade-related companies.

Associate Dean Huang said that Social Sciences College has always tried to find internship opportunities for students, but it involves a lot of coordination and contact, but he still said that the college will actively making effort to provide students, especially international students, with internship opportunities. In response to the suggestion to add a data analysis course, Dr. Po-Chun Huang took his own labor economics as an example and pointed out that although there is no specific data analysis-based course at present, in fact, relevant courses have more or less included discussion and operation of data analysis.

In response to the suggestions made by the students of the program, Dr. Wei said that the IMES program is relatively new and due to the structural problems and limitations faced by almost all degree programs, especially English ones, the programs can only respond to students’ expectations as much as possible under the existing resource conditions. For example, the data analysis course and part of knowledge learning are planned to be carried out in the form of a one-day workshop. She also took this opportunity to inform that IMES will hold a Research Foundation Workshop at noon on December 10th, inviting teachers from the Department of Public Finance, Dr. Shi-Shu Peng, from Academia Sinica, Dr. Tzu-Ying Yang, and from Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Dr. Yu-Hsuan Su to teach applied macroeconomics, econometrics and applied microeconomics, mainly to respond to the students’ hopes of having more learning opportunities in basic research and theoretical knowledge, and of course, welcome all interested students to sign up.

–Dean and Associate Dean of Social Sciences College took the time to greet and encourage the students of IMES.

–Teachers and students exchange opinion over a simple meal

–Associate Dean Dr. Tong-Yi Huang (second from right) and Dr. Po-Chun Huang (third) participated in the whole process and listened carefully and responded to students’ opinions.