Achievements and Highlights of the Year 2020
This project aims at promoting the implementation of education innovation, the development of university specialties, the enhancement in public higher education, the fulfillment of social responsibility, and the cultivation of international focused areas. It has accomplished a number of significant results in 2020.
- Implementation of education innovation: (1) Promoted interdisciplinary education. 14 interdisciplinary mini-programs have been developed, the percentage of students taking interdisciplinary courses has been increasing each from 5.1% in term 1062 to 17.8% in term 1091, with 31% of undergraduate students completing interdisciplinary courses. (2) Improved innovative entrepreneurship education and cultivated the entrepreneurial spirit in teachers and students. TMU has received many external awards and recognitions, such as the excellent entrepreneur team of the U-start plan by the Ministry of Education (MOE), and the winner of the Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge Asia, etc. (3) Promoted programming courses, with cumulative percentages of 84.6% of undergraduate course enrollment. (4) The MOOCs courses have been acknowledged with 81 courses recorded and more than 190,000 people enrolled; two of the courses have been selected as “50+ Free Online Courses to Care for Elderly People” by Class Central search engine. (5) All 10 colleges have completed their college-based graduate program structures and accomplished 19 college featured teaching courses. (6) Promoted innovative education and established four school-level faculty communities for interdisciplinary, innovative technology education, information literacy, and teaching practice research purposes. The ratio of curriculum-oriented innovative education has increased from 15.8% in term 1072 to 64.6% in term 1091, and 17 Ministry of Education Teaching Practice Research Program grants were awarded in 2020.
- Development of university specialties: (1) Continued to move up in international rankings. Taipei Medical University (TMU) ranked 303rd in the World University Rankings 2021 (2nd at home), 35th in the Asia University Rankings 2020 (2nd at home), 387th in QS World University Rankings 2021 (8th at home), and 90th in QS Asia University Rankings 2021 (10th at home). (2) A total of seven subjects has entered the ESI rankings in 2020. In addition, TMU ranked 142nd in the subject of “Medicine,” 75th in “Pharmacy,” and 85th in “Nursing" in the QS World University Rankings 2020. Among all the subjects in the World University Rankings 2021 by subject, Clinical, pre-clinical and health excelled the other to be ranked 136th (2nd at home). (3) Excellent quality and quantity of research papers, with 2,134 SCI papers published in 2020 (as of 4th January, 2021). The average citation rate of field weight citation impact (FWCI=1.42) has grown in the past six years, and the international co-authorship ratio has reached 34.9%. (4) Total research subsidies for TMU continues to grow, reaching NT$1.56 billion in 2020. (5) Continued to develop translational medicine. TMU invests heavily into the three major research fields, including four advantageous fields (“cancer translation,” “neurology,” “thoracic medicine,” and “artificial intelligence medicine”), two emerging fields (cell/immunotherapy, biomedical device development) and two hidden potential fields (cardiology, urology and kidney), meanwhile begins to promote and develop precision health research. TMU has actively recruited academician-level full-time chair professors, foreign faculty members and outstanding research talents. The top academician-level scholars lead TMU’s research teams on promoting basic and clinical cooperation. (6) Acquired large-scale research projects, such as 4 “Integrated Projects”, 3 “New Industry-university Cooperative Research Linking Programs” of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the “Promoting Clinical Trial Development Project for 2020-2023” of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, etc. (7) Achievements in industry-university collaborations. TMU received more than NT$220 million from industry-university cooperative projects in 2020, with an accumulated total of 354 patents. The university has helped incubate 18 spin-off companies, three of which are founded in 2020. Among the aforementioned companies, 3D Global Biotech Inc. completed its listing on the emerging stock market. The total amount of paid-in capital exceeded NT$1.36 billion. (8) Continued to be granted the Ministry of Science and Technology’s International Industry-Academia Alliance project. TMU has recruited 16 domestic and foreign industrial members in 2020, with a total of 34 in the past three years. (9) TMU has been awarded grants of NT$25.65 million from three New Industry-university Cooperative Research Linking Programs by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2020. (10) Fruitful results in clinical trials. The contract fees of new cases in 2020 have reached nearly NT$280 million. MPT0E028, the first new anti-cancer drug initiated by a university in Taiwan, has completed clinical Phase I trials and is about to enter clinical Phase II trials.
- Enhancement in public higher education: (1) In addition to tuition and incidental fee waivers and disadvantaged student grants, financially disadvantaged students can also receive an average of around NT$120,000 additional aid. The percentage of grants received from 2018 to 2020 has reached 100%. The threshold of admission is relaxed for financially disadvantaged students, including the take-wing admission program offering 10 departments with a total of 16 places in the academic year 109. (2) The Indigenous Student Resource Center is newly established to improve the counseling mechanism for indigenous students.
- Fulfillment of social responsibility: (1) Won Bronze Award in the 2020 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards enterprise excellence case - University USR Sustainability Solution Award. (2) Continued to serve in the rural areas, with footprints all over the country and abroad. TMU's Maple and Apricot Medical Service Team won the first place of “Outstanding Team of Youth Volunteers” by MOE for 9 consecutive years. (3) Established TMU's Social Responsibility Promotion Committee and completed the 2019 Annual Results Report on the University Social Responsibility (USR) of Taipei Medical University. (4) TMU was granted from the USR projects of the Higher Education Sprout Project, including “Long-term Care for Young and Old: The City of Aging, Health and Livability,” “Assistive Technology to Brighten the Lives of People with Disabilities,” “Food as TEN (territory, enterprise, net),” and “Demonstration Project of Quality Living Settlement for the Wise Aged,” to carry out the university's social responsibility.
- Cultivation of international focused areas: (1) On the basis of “translational medicine”, TMU concentrates on cancer translation, neurology, thoracic medicine, artificial intelligence medicine and other fields. One of the 37 high quality papers (IF≧10) was published in Cell (IF=38.637). (2) Promoted campus internationalization through focused areas. TMU has recruited 20 foreign faculty members and the number of foreign doctoral students has reached 41% of the university's doctoral students. (3) Strengthened international connections, established comprehensive cooperation with worldly renowned allied universities/institutions (e.g. Johns Hopkins University, Case Western Reserve University, etc.), and promoted cross-national research collaborations, with an international co-authorship ratio of 34.9% in 2020. (4) Established six spin-off companies in the key research areas and obtained 18 new patents. The results of technology transfer reached NT$120 million, such as technology transfer to Korea's Joseah Bio and Anbogen Therapeutics, Inc.. (5) Established the TMU Biomed Accelerator, raised NT$18.3 million for the TMU Adventure Fund, invested in three start-up companies, and sent three biomedical seed talents to Stanford University to complete training in innovative biomed design.