1. Teaching Innovations and Improvements
• Bridging the knowledge-practice gap and enhance practical skills: department-level courses on marine characteristics are introduced in the freshman year, helping students build learning roadmaps. Approximately 77% of the university’s departments offer such courses. From sophomore to senior year, the university hosts lectures by industry professionals and arranges industry visits. It also offers 30 industry alignment courses, which have been taken by 1,666 students. During the 2023-2024 academic year, 217 students took the alumni engagement course, “Inheritance & Innovation” During the same period, 140 students took and passed the “Bonded Warehouse, Duty Free Shop, and Logistic Center Independent Management Specialist Certificate” test with a passing rate of 100%, while 69 students took and passed the “TWAEO Supply Chain Security Personnel Certificate” test with a passing rate of 100%. This helps enhance their competitiveness in the workforce. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 203 internship courses including “Industry-Academia Exchanges and Industry Internships” were offered and industry teachers were invited to impart courses. The number of students that interned in 2023 and 2024 was 2,986 and 2,727, respectively. The “Summer Practical Experience Program for University Students” set a new record with 145 participating cases. Student participation also reached an all-time high, increasing from 269 in 2023 to 271 in 2024. This reflects strong support and endorsement from both students and faculty at the university.
• Expanding independent learning and interdisciplinary education: the university is promoting the “University Student Independent Learning Special Course” where upperclassmen propose their own learning objectives. Five courses were introduced in the first semester of the 2024 academic year, with instructors guiding students in completing their study plans. Between 2023 and 2024, nine credit-based MOOCs were offered. A total of 666 people took the courses with a passing rate of 85%. Between the 2023 and 2024 academic years, 14 course groups were offered, with a total of 3,378 students participating. Eight professors participated in co-teaching the “Fishery Ecology and Breeding Technologies” and “Programming Language and Marine Data” courses in 2024, with 70 students taking the courses.
• Strengthening digital and bilingual abilities: the courses “Basic Programming” and “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” are compulsory. A total of 98 students in 40 teams participated in the “2023 Ocean Cup Programming Competition.” The university finished second and received an honorable mention at the “2024 National Intelligent Innovation and Interdisciplinary Creation Contest in Universities and Colleges.” At the “2024 National Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC),” two teams finished in fourth place and four teams received an honorable mention. The university also organizes school-wide English competitions, such as the “NTOU English Vocabulary King” and “NTOU English Reading and Presentation” competitions. A total of 100 students participated in 2023 and 164 students have participated as of July 2024. The university provides resources for the “Cambridge Certificate in EMI Skills,” with 33 teachers successfully completing the certification program. Additionally, 17 “Bilingual Teaching – Theory and Practice Workshops” have been held to strengthen teaching competencies. EMI course instructors are paired with foreign student teaching assistants. There have also been 13 cases where students received assistance for EMI coursework tutoring and language practice, and three projects for promoting EMI coursework tutoring and learning groups have been subsidized.
• Improving teaching quality and support: the number of teacher groups grew by 47.6% between 2022 and 2023-2024. The implementation of the course observation mechanism led to the opening of 147 classroom sessions between 2023 and 2024. Additionally, the number of teachers participating as observers saw a significant increase of 209. The plan to incentivize teachers to develop digital teaching materials resulted in the establishment of 230 units as of 2024. There were 20 commendations for teachers adopting open textbooks in the 2023-2024 academic year. In 2024, the university received the Taiwan Open Education Award’s “Open Education Digital Teaching Resources Utilization Award – School Division.” The “Main Points for Incentivizing Distance Education Courses” were formulated and the rewards for the digitalization of courses are granted in three stages. The university encourages teachers to adapt their teaching materials for distance education courses. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the number of distance education courses increased from zero to eight.
2. Fulfilling Social Responsibilities
• Deepening teaching practice: The number of people with flexible compensation reached 32, with a value of NT$5.88 million in 2023. The number of reduced hours through incentives totaled 24 hours in the 2023 academic year through the flexible remuneration and hour reduction incentive mechanism for teachers participating in social practice. In 2023, 19 teachers received public commendation, enhancing students’ and teachers’ recognition of and motivation for participating in social practice. Additionally, four students completed on-site internships in the Philippines, and five students participated in international field research in Japan, promoting the culture and experiences of the local sea-diving fisherpeople.
• Strengthening resource sharing: four groups – mathematics, biology, general studies, and bilingual classes – of teachers from different senior high and vocational schools were established and integrated with this university’s academic and research resources, with a total of 12 sessions and 962 participants. A total of 56 tutoring activities took place, with students going to senior high schools to provide afterschool tutoring to disadvantaged students. The university also organized marine science popularization training courses for educators, with 665 people taking the beginner course and 171 people taking the advanced course.
3. Industry-Academia Cooperation
• Cultivating skilled personnel in national key fields: in 2023, the “Training for Intelligent Maritime Professionals” program was conducted, with 29 teachers and students completing the training and obtaining the HEPTA-Sat certificate. In 2024, the “Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communications Simulation Course” and “ROV Practical Course” were conducted, with 27 teachers and students completing the former. After the “Carbon Inventory Workshop” and “Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Carbon Neutrality Skills Development Training Certificate Course,” 51 people obtained certification. For two straight years, the pass rate for the “Seafarer Examination” for first-class officer and first-class engineer candidates greatly exceeded the national average, and the performance of this university’s candidates ranked first among maritime universities. The university also encourages students to research and study green energy, SDGs, ESG, and carbon credits. In 2024, 27 people were granted subsidies totaling NT$192,950.
• Promoting innovation and sustainability through industry-academia cooperation: the university signed a “Marine Conservation and Sustainable Use of Recycling Resources” industry-academia MOU with Hon Hai Precision Industry. The university, the Ministry of the Interior’s National Land Management Agency, and CECI Engineering Consultants joined hands to participate in the “2024 Interior Hackathon,” winning the first prize. The number of teaching and research personnel participating in industry-academia collaborations valued over NT$10 million increased 1.22-fold between 2021 and 2023, and the number of cases increased by 1.92-fold. The “Class B Crew Member Training Course” was held in 2023, where 18 students completed 292 hours of academic and technical training and received Class B crew member certification.
4. Elevating the Publicness of Higher Education
• Improving support and mentoring: in 2023, the “Student Public Funds and Incentives” totaled NT$5,890,580. To date, NT$16.16 million have been raised for “Grants for Disadvantaged Students to Study Without Worries.” From 2023 to 2024, 233 digital learning plans were implemented, and 66.6% of students reported in a survey that they were able to reduce their part-time working hours and acquire new knowledge as a result. In 2023, an academic progress reward mechanism was established. A total of 64 students received scholarships and bursaries, and 85.4% used the scholarships and bursaries to supplement their living expenses and 66% used them to learn new skills and/or strengthen language capabilities. In the 2024 academic year, the number of indigenous students increased by 1.19% compared to the previous academic year, and 15 activities with 429 participants were held between 2023 and 2024.
• Addressing gender equality: a 10-episode podcast launched in 2023 as part of a training program for women in marine science and technology reached listeners in Chinese-speaking regions around the world and amassed 5,000 clicks, while online transcripts received 50,000 clicks. The university also organized the “2024 Women Seafarers Forum.”
5. Globalizing the Administrative Support System
• Globalizing human and administrative resources: improve the website structure of the Office of International Affairs, translate important regulations and documents, and improve the accessibility and understanding of important information for foreign students and faculty. Two English introductory videos have been created to familiarize new students with university resources before enrollment.
• Creating a friendly international campus: complete four systems to support foreign students from enrollment to graduation, increase the freshman data collection rate to at least 70%, reduce the data collection time by 85%, effectively shorten the student adaptation period, and reduce paper-based processes for the activity registration system by over 90%. A special section for foreign teaching and research personnel has been created on the website to offer guidance for foreign students to work in Taiwan after graduating.
***The website for detailed information***
1. https://ctl.ntou.edu.tw/p/412-1105-12702.php?Lang=zh-tw
2. https://ctl.ntou.edu.tw/p/412-1105-12703.php?Lang=zh-tw
3. https://ctl.ntou.edu.tw/p/412-1105-12704.php?Lang=zh-tw
4. https://ctl.ntou.edu.tw/p/412-1105-12705.php?Lang=zh-tw
***The website for the medium- and long-term plans of National Taiwan Ocean University***
https://r020.ntou.edu.tw/var/file/21/1021/img/1015/491405613.pdf
