CSULB welcomes Taiwan's Ming Chuan University in first-of-its-kind partnership
Cal State Long Beach and Taiwan’s Ming Chuan University celebrated a historic milestone Friday with the opening of MCU’s operations on the CSULB campus, marking the only California State University with a permanent on-campus presence of an international university.
The MCU presence at CSULB creates a unique model for global education, bringing an international university directly onto a CSU campus. The collaboration will provide students in the greater Los Angeles region with expanded access to a globalized education, while also offering opportunities for short-term study, language immersion, professional experiences and cultural learning in Taiwan.
The partnership will launch dual-degree graduate programs beginning in 2027, including CSULB's MBA and Asian and Asian American Studies programs paired with MCU’s International Business and Trade, and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. The connection also strengthens ties between Long Beach and Taoyuan City, home to MCU’s largest campus, which established a sister-city relationship in 2017.
“(International education) expands a student’s understanding of the world. It teaches students how to listen across differences, work within other cultures, and recognize that knowledge is strengthened when it is shared,” said CSULB President Loren J. Blanchard.
“Ming Chuan is proud to be building on 14 years of experience gained at our Michigan location as we prepare to launch new programs here in California,” said Chuan Lee, Chancellor of the Ming Chuan Global Education System. “Both CSULB and MCU promote global competencies across all disciplines, support faculty development, encourage international internships and global learning outcomes.”
Located in the CSULB Research Foundation Building, MCU will serve as a foundation for expanded educational, cultural, and professional connections. The partnership can already be seen in the Ming Chuan students who studied at The Beach last summer, the visiting professor who joined our academic community this spring, and the work now taking place across both universities to prepare this partnership for what will come next, Blanchard explained.
Attendees of the event, held in the College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPaCE), included CSU Trustee Wenda Fong, Provost Karyn Scissum Gunn, Jason PoYuan Ma of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office, a representative from Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson’s office, CSULB faculty and staff, as well as Taiwan media and dozens of members of Southern California Ming Chuan alumni dressed in bright fuchsia polos.
“A ribbon cutting marks an opening point,” said Blanchard. “What matters now is what comes through that opening point: students, faculty, ideas, scholarship, cultural exchange and opportunities neither of our universities could create alone.”
