Higher Education SPROUT Project

National Taiwan University (hereinafter referred to as “NTU” or “the University”) focuses on the implementation of student-oriented teaching and learning in terms of (1) evidence-based instructional enhancement; (2) consolidating and deepening the foundation, cross-disciplinary innovation; (3) encouraging research and practical learning; (4) teaching innovation and digital learning. NTU adopts the related strategies accordingly to materialize the foresaid 4 dimensions.

The highlights of the outcomes are summarized as follows:

1. Evidence-based instructional enhancement: NTU has established and improved existing assessment tools, including First-year Student Learning Experience Survey, Final-year Student Learning Experience Survey, First-year Graduate Student Learning Survey. These tools enable the University to keep close track and provide evidence of students' development of inquiry skills and career certainty. The University simultaneously strengthen the NTU aCARE learning tracking and counseling mechanism to help teachers and students adjust the teaching and learning mode. Besides, the faculty of the University is encouraged to execute Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) launched by the Ministry of Education; teaching is the research subject in SoTL, faculty members can utilize the empirical research result and feedback to further improvement or innovation in teaching.
2. Deepening the Foundation and encouraging cross-disciplinary innovation: The University urges the academic units to review the curriculum to plan the so-called “specialization program,” which is composed of 4-5 interrelated courses bearing 12-15 credits in total. Students can extract the core competences of the domain knowledge quickly through specialization program, and then head for the advanced course(s) or branch out into other course(s) contained in other specialization program(s). The specialization program, along with the extant mechanisms such as double major, minor, credit-bearing programs, is supposed to make interdisciplinary learning more accessible for students. There are currently 50 departments/graduate institutes launching about 210 specialization programs as of the end of 2021. There will be more academic units encouraged to implement curriculum review and specialization programs in the nearer future.
3. To encourage research and practical learning: NTU encourages the academic units to incorporate learning-by-doing element to the courses, in the hope of enhancing students’ problem-solving abilities through this inquiry-based learning mode. In academic year 2019-2020, there are 7.94% courses designed with experimental/practical/internship elements. Undergraduate students are encouraged to engage in research-oriented courses, such as bachelor's thesis and research seminars. The newly-implemented Honors Program is designed for undergraduate students showing strong research interests. As of December 2021, the program has been implemented in 9 departments.
4. Teaching Innovation & E-Learning: NTU COOL is built up as the newly digital teaching and learning platform; in 2021, there are 6,314 courses, about 30,000 (accounting for more than 90%) instructors and students interacting on this platform. To promote the efficiency of in-class teaching, the University deploys the next generation of future classrooms since 2020, there are 40 courses arranged in future classroom in Zonghe and Boy lecture building, and obtaining a favorable view, scoring 5.44 points of overall satisfaction (5 points scale). MOOCs credit transfer and blended learning models further enhance flexibility in learning and autonomous learning. The University continues to advance our learning management systems for digital education.

In terms of develop the university’s distinguished feature

1. Actively participate in international higher education organizations: NTU is an active member in many renowned international higher education organizations including Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), The Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU), Association of Southeast Asian Institutes of Higher Education (ASAIHL), M8 Alliance, Asia-Oceania Top University League (AOTULE), and Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). As pragmatic member, NTU strives for pivotal roles on the core team of each organization and collaborates with member universities on vital global issues such as multi-hazard, global health, women in leadership, sustainable cities and landscapes, etc.
2. Strengthen collaboration with strategic partners: based on the mutual collaboration with our partner universities, NTU is actively negotiating with our strategic partners to develop a join seed funding scheme, where both universities will fund international research projects among faculty members. Faculty members as well as graduate students are encouraged to engage in interdisciplinary research and develop action plans for international collaboration. For example, research teams can base their collaboration on the UN SDGs to solve urban issues and continue to include new researchers from our strategic partners. NTU has also made many efforts in the diversification and internationalization of teaching. Additional subsidies were established to encourage invited foreign scholars to teach micro-courses at NTU during their visit to Taiwan, so NTU students can also benefit from English taught courses by internationally renowned experts.
3. Build up a globalized campus environment with comprehensive education and research facilities and platforms: NTU attempts to increase the diversity of overseas students by providing sufficient incentives and counseling services. First of all, NTU has introduced new guidelines for Undergraduate Programs Admission through Recommendation by Overseas Senior High Schools. In addition, NTU scholarships and financial assistance grant regulations for international students have been readjusted recently. Moreover, NTU has kept developing international short-term programs and Chinese language learning courses to meet the growing needs of overseas students. Lastly, by cooperating with the New Southbound Policy and utilizing the current resources plus additional financial grant support, the number of overseas students from Southeast Asia has increased substantially.

In terms of promoting publicness in higher education

   1.Expansion of enrollment methods and counseling students who are economically or culturally disadvantaged.

(1)  Subsidies for economically and culturally disadvantaged students to participate in the recruit examination fees for registration, transportation and accommodation. In 2019, the President Kuan led a team to hold recruit student seminars in various places. Due to covide-19, it was switched to live broadcast via internet in 2020. After the pandemic was controlled, NTU co-organized several small recruit briefings with high schools to increase opportunities for touching teachers and students for high schools.

(2)  For the “Hope Admissions” students, NTU set up a cultivation group to assist these students in adapting to university life and improving their learning ability through a shared learning community.

(3)  NTU has built an online application system to provide a comprehensive "one-stop" online service to strengthen willingness for application. NTU Comprehensive Support Program for Economically or Culturally Disadvantaged Students was used for paper and counter applications during 2018-2019. Since 2020, a website had been established to provide students with one-stop online services. Online application is effective during the pandemic, strengthening willingness to apply.

(4)  There were 911 students were approved and more than NTD$14,250,000 in scholarships were issued by “NTU Comprehensive Support Program for Economically or Culturally Disadvantaged Students” in 2021. This program is renamed as the euphemistic one in case the students who accepted the subsidy to rip off the label, if any.

   2.Resource Sharing and Knowledge Translation in Higher Education

(1)  The University operates an open education resource platform, including NTU Speech, NTU OCW, NTU MOOC, to name a few. There are close to 3,000 digitalized lectures on NTU Speech, while there are 244 open courses on NTU OCW. The NTU MOOC Project was launched in 2013 and has partnered with Coursera, an international MOOC platform, for a total of 67 courses so far.

(2)   In 2020, NTU MOOC was extended to senior high schools for the first time. The University collaborates with the Chenggong High School and Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in the fall semester of 2020 to tutor sophomores in utilizing NTU MOOC to fill up the flexible learning slot in the new curriculum. Hsin Tien Senior High School joined the cohort in the spring semester of 2021; Banqiao Senior High School, Jingmei Girls High School, and Fanghe Experimental High School in the fall semester of 2021. There are a total of 6 partner schools ranging from general high school, community school, to experimental school. Besides, NTU OCW was added to the list of elective courses in the fall semester of 2021 to offer an abundance of courses to high school students. A hybrid colloquium was held at the end of semester to provide high school students the opportunity to meet university teachers and learn about university departments so as to help them with self-exploration and choosing college major. In 2022, this program will be open to all high schools in Taiwan to allow all high school students use NTU’s open educational resources for self-learning and take the advantage of online learning, in an effort to narrow the urban-rural gap in educational resources and fulfil the University’s social responsibility.

In terms of Outcomes and Highlights on USR in 2021

1. To engage in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, NTU established the “Sustainable Development Promotion Committee” and the "Office of Sustainability." The Promotion Committee is responsible for drafting the sustainable development strategies and goals, whereas the office is to integrate NTU’s administrative and academic resources, and execute action plans that focus on making the NTU campus more sustainable.
2. In June 2020, NTU took the initiative to announce its carbon reduction goal: 50% carbon neutrality by 2028 and 100% carbon neutrality by 2048 as a response to the Paris Agreement. Following the goals set by Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), NTU also laid out its future reduction measures, including the development of carbon-negative technologies, increased energy efficiency, the use of carbon-free electricity and low-carbon energy, electrification, and carbon offset credits.
3. In December 2020, the NTU fund has withdrawn all of its investment from high-pollution and high-emission industries, making NTU the first university in Asia to have completed such disinvestment. In the future, NTU will continue to promote sustainable investment and is committed to investing in funds and businesses with sustainable performance. As of 2021, sustainable investment accounted for nearly 80% of total investment.
4. To assist Tuvalu's fight against climate change, NTU organized a cross-disciplinary team with professors from different areas including environmental engineering, oceanography, agriculture, etc. To solve the issue of basic needs in Tuvalu such as local drinking water, food and sanitation, the team proposed to build a low-energy wastewater treatment system. The university attended the UN COP26 in Scotland to showcase our efforts and results. NTU was the first higher education institution in Taiwan to participate in the UN Climate Change conference.