Located in Shalu District in Taichung City, Providence is a mixed Catholic institution founded by the American congregation of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, Indiana, USA. The sisters created in 1920 in China one of the first schools for girls. It was a revolution. They decided to extend this feat to Taiwan in 1949, when they established Providence University for Women in Taichung. It was in 1993 that men were allowed to enter school. It was a huge upheaval at the management level, which then renamed Providence University, as we know it today.
Over the years, the school gets bigger and possesses 5 faculties today :
- foreign languages and literature
- human sciences and social sciences
- sciences
- management (in which I am currently)
- IT
At the same time, buildings kept blooming in the campus, it was necessary to welcome all new students and these new faculties. We are approximately 12.000, more than 11.000 undergraduates and 1.000 postgraduates students. And we have about twenty buildings at our disposal.
Currently, Dr. Chuan Yi Tang is the 9th President for 8 years now. He continues to expand the university, including hosting students and professors from around the world, while preserving and transmitting Taiwanese culture.
After several months of waiting for the start, including 3 (beautiful) months without having to go to class, the morning alarm clock was slightly complicated. The great welcome we have received has rewarded this effort.
First of all, we received an email telling us a Facebook group allowing us to have access to the updated information needed by foreign students. So we could follow in real time the news provided by Alanda, our manager. In addition, the university is very reactive to each of our messages, whether by mail or Facebook.
Back to school day:
We had an appointment at the entrance of the university, and a plan had been provided to us on the Facebook group. Everything was very well explained.
Our "buddy friendship" welcomed us with a small presentation of the university, powerpoint and cameras (a complete photo shoot).
Finally, a small tour of campus closed this morning. Visiting an empty campus was strange enough. Indeed, the holidays of the Chinese new year were not finished yet. So we had a campus on our own.
During the first week, I chose my classes.
Multicultural Learning and Exchange was my favorite, I wanted to learn more about the culture of this country in which I chose to stay 5 months. Chinese culture has always attracted me. I do not regret my choice, the teacher is calm and patient, she teaches us the many customs that characterize this culture so profoundly different from ours.
Brand management was my second choice. Again, the course is exciting, and the teacher makes it a point of honor to create as many interactions as possible between students by conducting "discussions" for a few minutes several times in the same course.
International Business Management seemed to me to be a logical choice with regard to my studies in business school and my desire to discover the international. And finally, Consumer Behavior.
In class, the cultural differences are rather surprising, from an European point of view. First, teachers create Facebook groups so that everyone can be kept informed and can communicate directly with them. Much more practical than the mails that are lost often enough and are complicated to find among the mass of advertising mails that everyone receives every day. French teachers should also get involved ...
Then students can eat and drink whatever they want during class. Finally, they can enter and leave classes as they please, and both Taiwanese students and teachers are late. Moreover, the teachers always free us in advance, which is appreciable.
As for social activities, here students have access to a gym at a ridiculous price (NTD $ 700 for one semester), as well as a whole lot of sports equipment and a swimming pool. All students benefit and play sports.
This university is really nice. The welcome we received was great, we are well surrounded.
And the students are adorable. They approach us and ask us our nationality, they are many to engage the conversation even if some have trouble with English. It's really cool ! The Taiwanese are less stressed than the French and we can feel it in the relations that we have with them.
