TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s representative to Spain, Liu Te-li (劉德立), and University of Alcala President Jose Vicente Saz Perez have made tentative plans to organize a forum next year to help local teachers and students gain a better understanding of Taiwan.

Liu was invited to visit Perez at the University of Alcala on Monday (Nov. 30). The vice president of the university, Julio Cañero Serrano, and the school’s international director, Ignacio Bravo Muñoz, accompanied Liu to take a tour of the university campus as well as the surrounding city of Alcala de Hernares.

Liu said that in recent years, the number of Taiwanese students studying in Spain has been increasing. He added that the Taiwan representative office will continue to increase cooperation with the University of Alcala in the future. He also expressed hope that the school will add more courses to attract Taiwanese university students and boost academic exchanges, CNA reported.

Perez stated that this year's Wuhan coronavirus prevented him from attending the 70th-anniversary celebration of Tamkang University’s founding. However, he said that he hopes to visit Taiwan once the pandemic eases to promote academic and cultural exchanges.

Perez also invited Liu to organize an "Introduction to Taiwan" symposium together in March next year to discuss the current status of Taiwan's political and economic development and its pandemic prevention success so that University of Alcala students and teachers can learn more about the East Asian nation.

Located in central Spain, the University of Alcala was founded in 1499 and has about 28,000 students and 1,800 professors. Over the years, the school has spared no effort to promote internationalization and has signed academic agreements with five Taiwanese universities: Tamkang University, Fu Jen Catholic University, National Taiwan Normal University, National Chung Hsing University, and Lunghua University of Science and Technology.