National Tsing Hua University, which recently overtook NTU in the latest world university rankings released by the Times of London, announced a cooperation agreement with Hsinchu General Hospital over the weekend. The objective is to elevate the overall medical quality in the Hsinchu area through a combination of NTHU's academic expertise and the hospital's clinical experience.

Over 20 Tsing Hua professors and Hsinchu General Hospital doctors saw the signing of the MOU.

This cooperation is not only one step closer for the NTHU's plan to incooperate medicine into its curriculum, but also allows the school to bind its strong background in engineering with actual patient tests.

For years, NTHU has been applying to the Education Ministry to set up a hospital. Recently, the school has been aggressively seeking parternships with hospitals to work on research.

In the future, hospital doctors will be allowed to take courses at the university, while students will be able to join in on patient studies. Hsinchu General Hospital is the only local teaching hospital in the Hsinchu area.

It hopes to work with Tsing Hua and Chiao Tung University's engineering school on research, hoping to improve the medical care in the Hsinchu area.