Endless Marvels from a Visionary Educator

Tsai-Ding Lin

Professor/Department of International Business

Former Dean/College of Management, Tunghai University

        Dr. En-te Hsu received his doctoral degree while I was the dean of the management college. Faculty of the accounting department all expected him to take over the chairman position. Dr. Hsu took over the position without any hesitation in 2005. During his chairmanship until 2010, he was always thinking about what more he could do for the department. Though he did not live on campus, he worked very late till night, and was dubbed as “Mr. 7-Eleven.”

        I was deeply impressed by his series of amazements. To him, education is not only teaching on blackboard or flying slides of PPTs. He likes to interact with students, lead them, and change them. He has strong commitment to the accounting department, always thinking about strategies to help the department, such as encouraging faculty to publish, hiring teachers with doctoral degree and senior chair professors, inviting distinguished CEOs to lecture, establishing volunteer training and professional internships.

        Same as other visionary leaders, Dr. Hsu was very compassionate to share his visions, and I was proudly to be one of his early audiences. One of his ideas was about “International Business Professional Internship.” Despite his ardor, I tried to dampen his enthusiasm. At that time, we were undertaking the construction of new management building. I realized coordination was a tedious and painful process, and I hated it.

Though I appreciated his care for students’ career development, I kindly reminded him the plan was not easy to carry out. The international CPA firms might decline us because THU was not a top national university like NTU (National Taiwan University) or NCCU (National Chengchi University). It is more unlikely for foreign companies to offer internships to Tunghai. I also mentioned some disadvantages, for example, the location of THU in Taichung city might make it more difficult in searching for and commuting to affiliated companies for lacking of an MRT system. I poured cold water on his ideas but could never put out the fire in his heart and his zeal for students.

         On the Eve of one Chinese New Year, Ministry of Education released “Program for Promoting Teaching Excellence Universities,” and we had to apply for it in short time. I thought of Dr. Hsu because his dream could be realized through this program, so I asked him to sacrifice holiday to write a proposal of “Preparation for Career and Learning from Jobs.” Fortunately, the project was approved. I have good reasons to believe the project was a forerunner of today’s International Internship Program launched by Dr. Hsu.

His dream came true On October 24, 2008. Project IIP (International Internship Program) benefited not only the accounting department but also other departments and colleges. Furthermore, it helped the sponsor firms and enterprises to win the talent war in recruiting excellent students much earlier than their competitors. Three years’ later, I received a well-printed brochure, “Build the Dream, Bridge to the World” composed of internship experiences reported by students of Taiwan-Italy program. Italy, a country I have never been though suffering from European sovereign-debt, from which Taiwan’s SMEs can learn in designing, R&D and branding. Dr. Hsu and his team have successfully built a bridge connecting Taiwan and Italy. The man, an arduous educator, who is brave to pursue his dreams, gave me another surprise, again.