【Innovative teaching and quality】
l The mission of NCTU Innovative Creative Technology Co-working Space (NCTU-ICT) is to integrate university teaching facilities and resources to promote interdisciplinary education and practical learning. Over ten university-level shared laboratories and multiple co-working spaces have been established to promote diversity in teaching and learning. In addition to managing facilities, NCTU-ICT also serves as a bridge between faculty members from different disciplines to form teaching teams for emerging fields. Seven emerging fields/groups have been organized to provide three levels of professional practical courses, namely core practical courses, professional practical courses, and mini courses, and workshops for building up students’ fundamental knowledge and skills. In total, 6 core practical courses, 13 professional practical courses, and 35 mini courses (including workshops) have been arranged and participated in by a total of 1,201 students in academic year 109.
l As a pioneer in Taiwan, NCTU has been promoting the cross-disciplinary program to cultivate high-caliber students with interdisciplinary expertise. This program has been implemented for 5 years and totally 681 students took this program, indicating that cross-disciplinary learning has become a mainstream doctrine at NCTU. Keeping integrating the teaching resources of departments, institutes, and colleges, currently NCTU provides 49 cross-disciplinary module curriculums to students. Moreover, NCTU gathers the teachers from various professional fields to form a mentor team. The goal is to provide counsels of interdisciplinary learning for students enrolled in cross-disciplinary program.
l We continue to promote capstone courses at NCTU to help teachers to develop competency indicators of capstone courses that align with the core competency indicators of the department, college, and university. With authentic design, one of the learning outcomes of capstone courses is to educate students with capability for solving real-world problems based on the knowledge and techniques they have learned from courses. That is, capstone courses aim to train students to summarize, deepen, and demonstrate the applicability of professional knowledge. In 2020, NCTU provided 29 capstone courses and the average satisfaction score for these courses was 4.29 in course survey.
l For the third consecutive year, NCTU continues to work with U.K. Advance HE to support the professional development of faculties and staffs involved in enhancing the learning experience of students in 2020. Advance HE is a British professional organization that promotes the quality of teaching and learning within the tertiary education sector globally. The 2020 CLTHE program was co-designed and co-delivered by Advance HE and NCTU faculties from a wide range of disciplines. Twenty-six participants including faculties, Ph.D. students, and postdocs from NCTU, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), and National Yang Ming University (NYMU), gathered at NCTU and worked together to develop high-quality professional practices in teaching that support student learning and become more effective and reflective professionals. By 2020, we have supported more than 135 faculties and Ph.D. students who successfully completed the 60-hour CLTHE certificate program and more than 50 who have been awarded by different levels of Higher Education Academy (HEA) fellowship. Our fellowship success rate reached 100% in 2019. The ultimate aim is to achieve excellence in teaching and learning for higher-level education in Taiwan.
【Academic research and industry-academia cooperation】
l The research performance analysis platform (NCTU Academic Hub) was set up to track the dynamics of the research impacts developed in NCTU. The platform covers international journal papers and developments from academia and industry cooperation, and the platform will be used to evaluate academic performance for policy decisions on enhancing the advantages of NCTU research fields.
l There were 12 top journal papers published in Science and Nature (series) in 2020. Moreover, the h-index of NCTU steadily increased year by year and there were 8 among 22 research fields attributed to the globally top 1% according to the Essential Science Indicators (Clarivate Analytics). In this year, our faculties won 120 times of domestic and international awards.
l There were 19 PhD students awarded by NCTU scholarships for international research cooperation with the world’s top universities. This program promotes the students’ international mobilities. It also broadens NCTU students’ perspectives and deepens international cooperation.
l Due to COVID-19, the physical conferences have made a transition to virtual conferences. In 2020, we have 10 international conferences held and sponsored by NCTU. More than 3000 attendees from 32 foreign countries joined the conferences.
l NCTU worked with 28 international scholarships, including well-known professors in top universities and highly cited researchers, to come to NCTU for collaborative researches through our program of “Enhancing International Academic Influences”. In addition, there were 14 internationally-renowned scholars won the “Yushan (Young) Scholar Program” from 2018 to 2020.
l The communication between NCTU and the world’s top universities is especially important. In 2020, there were 94 times of international communications through our program of “Promoting International Research Cooperation”.
l We set up 10 interdisciplinary research groups in NCTU to link essential fields, including engineering, semiconductor, wireless communication, medical, biology, digital technology, humanities, social science and so on. On the other hand, we launched the Smart Health Care Promotion Office to integrate research resources for cooperation projects between NCTU and domestic hospitals. In 2020, NCTU received 2.83 billions of NT dollars from industry-academia collaboration projects. We will lead and promote high-level technological applications in industry so as to train high-tech talents to reinforce Taiwan economics.
【International teaching and research environments】
l International College of Semiconductor Technology (ICST) at NCTU has been conducting the dual degree program with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) since 2017. ICST collaborates with IIT and well-known enterprises in Taiwan to nurture international talents, and that is an innovative talent cultivation model among the universities in Taiwan. Under this collaborative program, the partner enterprises provide the IIT students with scholarships, internships, and job opportunities; together they construct a full career path for these talents. Up until 2020, NCTU has signed dual degree program agreements with IIT Madras (IITM), IIT Kanpur (IITK), IIT Bombay (IITB), and IIT Delhi (IITD), and there have been 43 IIT students willing to join this program, including 24 students enrolled. NCTU will continue to promote this program and extend this successful model to other fields.
l ICST at NCTU has been the first professional international college of semiconductor technology in Asia. In 2020, through the international collaboration with Vietnam National University and Hanoi University of Science, ICST successfully established an international education platform in Vietnam, which provides the first master degree program in the field of semiconductor in Vietnam. The mission of this overseas master program is to cultivate creative talents in the fields of semiconductor technology and semiconductor circuits.
l NCTU and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have reached an agreement to partner with top enterprises in Taiwan and launched the MIT-NCTU Internship Program, which is the first successful case in Taiwan’s academia. NCTU recruits top students from MIT to conduct researches in laboratories of NCTU and participate in industrial internship programs. This program promotes the exchange between MIT students, NCTU faculties and students, and Taiwan’s industry, creating mutual benefits for the Taiwan government, enterprises, NCTU, MIT, and students. In 2020, there were 12 MIT students and 2 well-known enterprises (TSMC, E.SUN Bank) joining the first MIT-NCTU Internship Program.
l NCTU has been endeavoring to create and promote multicultural diversity and inclusiveness on the campus. We enrich the English-taught courses and provide the students with a thoughtful learning environment, e.g. the prayer room for Muslims and the Indian restaurant. In 2020, there were 1,275 international students in NCTU, which stood for 9.4% of the total students of NCTU.
l NCTU has been encouraging students to study overseas via exchange programs, dual degree programs, internship programs, outbound research programs, and so forth. In 2020, under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, only 250 students were able to participate in these programs, and that represented 7.5% of the yearly graduates with the experiences of study abroad (In 2019, it was 25.6%). In order to maintain the internationalization of education during this pandemic, we launched a general education course, which is inspirational for our students, by inviting experts with international experiences to give speeches.
【Assistances for disadvantaged students】
l NCTU offers a special program to enroll economically disadvantaged students by relaxing their admission criteria. The participating departments come from a range of different colleges, including College of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Computer Science, College of Engineering, College of Science, College of Biological Science and Technology, College of Management, and College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The admission quota was 66 students in 2020. The number of the registered students was 62 in 2020.
l In 2020, the economically disadvantaged students in NCTU that were issued incentive subsidies through the advising programs are as follows: 107 students for tutoring, 1850 students for course learning, 32 students for cross-disciplinary program, 231 students for career exploration, 4 students for career competition, 207 students for public service-learning activity, 266 students for health care and 5 students for international exchange. The total number is 2,702 people, an increase of 1,711 people over the previous year.
l To improve the English ability of economically disadvantaged students, the course-learning program in 2020 has encouraged them not only to take the English courses that are endorsed by the Living Guidance Division, but also to cultivate good habits of learning English regularly via the Language Teaching and Research Center in NCTU. In 2020, there were 27 students who have passed the English proficiency test.
【University social responsibility】
l The Si-Tian Association Puppet Theater Cultural Relics Collection and Research Development Project: In 2019, NCTU received a donation of 2,000 cultural relics from the Si-Tian Association (西田社), and immediately organized the archival plans for this collection, named the "Si-Tian Association Cultural Relics Collection and Research Development". NCTU will not only continuously preserve the culture for the 2030 Agenda, which was shared culture, shared heritage, and shared responsibility, and as a goal through the utilization of the shared cultural heritage. NCTU has been focusing on developing an international network that creates cultural diversity and constructing a platform for communication for the protection of cultural heritage.
Moreover, NCTU has inherited the cultural heritage of the Si-Tian association, and has gone on to extend the preservation and maintenance of other traditional dramas, building upon the only platform for traditional art history in Taiwan. NCTU uses sophisticated technology to advance the research, collection, education, and promotion of traditional hand puppetry. At its core, NCTU also nurtures local connections and cultivates innovative talents through humanistic care to solve real problems in the community and fulfill its social responsibility. The project ‘s vision oversees the construction of a platform for preservation of cultural heritage (i.e., setting up of a digital museum) by developing a Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and then expand outward, as well as establishing collaborations. In the face of ever changing cultural tourism, diversified cultural value, and cultural inheritance and governance, NCTU will utilize the rich history and strong technical skills of puppet theater as well as create the brand identity to create interactions and establish deep connections among contemporary societies, and encourage towards cultural participation, shared culture, and sustainable development to achieve the goal of connecting the world.
l Following the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations, this university social responsibility (USR) project aims to promote lifelong learning and ensure non-discrimination policy in education everywhere. This aim would like to react the recent trend in artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) which result in decreasing the job opportunities due to the development of robots in industry. This project boosts the impact of USR by fostering the education in junior and senior high schools with new technologies of AI and IoT which are collected from the researches of the professors in Colleges of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science. The courses on sensor technology, programming language, algorithm and data structure are provided by different professors in NCTU. The project carries out a number of courses with 216 hours which can support more than 300-hour classes from level G3 to G12. We also offer the extended education courses with 200 hours for school teachers in primary schools and junior and senior high schools in domestic areas. This project further fulfills the company social responsibility program and receives donation of 8500 IoT devices which facilitate domestic schools to inspire their AI and IoT educations and to make our young children learned with the capability of AIoT, programming as well as system operation so as to face their brilliant future.
We have established 14 student service teams in diverse fields, concerning areas such as long-term elderly care, increasing accessibility and popularization of the sciences, enrichment of information technology, architectural development, environmental sustainability and more. The “Hand-in-Hand” education program founded in 2010, NCTU International Volunteer Group in India facilitates volunteering services for students in Ladakh, which is located in the northern part of India. By updating self-learning materials of English grammar, science experiments, and sharing digital resources to the Indian partner schools, this group cultivates the students’ interest and ability in independent learning, in spite of the limited educational resources. Furthermore, the group raises money from Taiwan and abroad to support the economically disadvantaged students with their tuition. The fund aims at breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, and allowing students to continue their education, so that they can be empowered with knowledge and contribute to their community. In addition, the Team BAT (The bridge of ASEAN and Taiwan) of NCTU seeks to bridge between Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. This team improves the facilitation of diverse cultural interactions with neighboring countries through our actions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Team BAT instead accomplished a construction project at Hsincheng District, Hualien, which is located in the east coast of Taiwan. Working together with NCTU Graduate Institute of Architecture and the Association of Humanitarian Architecture. Team BAT built a wood playground set for the school, which is a stable and multifunctional space for children to learn and play.