Mandarin Chinese to foreign students. The Mandarin Training Center represents one of the world's oldest and most distinguished programs for language study, attracting more than a thousand students from over sixty countries to Taiwan each year and making the Shida area of Taipei one of the city's most cosmopolitan. Courses in language, literature, calligraphy, art and martial arts are offered in a series of three-month terms throughout the year, enabling international students to undertake language studies during summer breaks and within single semesters. The center also sponsors travel, hosts speech contests, and stages workshops and performances for a variety of East Asian arts. A Mandarin Training Center Alumni Association (MTCAA) has been operating since 1998. Other international highlights recently at NTNU include the International Chemistry Olympiad hosted by the university in 2005 and the merger of NTNU with the University Preparatory School for Overseas Chinese Students in 2006. NTNU also participates in the Biodiversity Program of the Taiwan International Graduate Program of Academia Sinica. A new dormitory for NTNU international students is slated to open in 2024. NTNU nurtures a robust system of partnerships to enable this level of international study. Among the institutions that enjoy sister relationships with NTNU are the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California San Diego, University of California, Irvine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University, University of Maryland, College Park, and Rutgers University in the US, the University College London, King’s College, University of London, University of Manchester, University of Glasgow and University of Birmingham in the UK, the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta and Simon Fraser University in Canada, the Australian National University, and Monash University in Australia, the École normale supérieure de Lyon, Sciences Po and Aix-Marseille University in France, University of Heidelberg, Free University of Berlin and University of Bonn in Germany, the Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University in South Korea, Kyushu University, Osaka University, Hokkaido University, Nagoya University, Tohoku University, University of Tsukuba and Waseda University in Japan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University in Singapore,University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and City University of Hong Kong in HK, University of Auckland and University of Otago in New Zealand, University of Helsinki and