Taipei National University of the Arts
Higher Education SPROUT Project 114Highlights
Our university’s Higher Education Sprout Project is built on two pillars: transdisciplinary teaching through artistic-scientific performance and sustainability-oriented social practices. It focuses on enhancing teaching quality and learning outcomes across seven colleges, aligning institutional development with global trends.
Internally, the project promotes innovative teaching models, strengthening students’ core competencies, employability, transdisciplinary skills, international mobility, AI literacy, and autonomous learning. Externally, it encourages faculty and students to extend learning achievements beyond campus, engaging with communities through performances, outreach, and collaborations with industry, government, and academia.
The arts remain a dynamic driving force, sustaining agency amid change and reinforcing the public value and influence of higher education in the arts.
Enhancing Teaching Innovation
1. Develop Innovative Teaching Models to Enhance Research and Learning Quality
Our university has long introduced leading faculty and training systems, advanced “cross-cultural” and “two-way” international programs, and strengthened innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and global engagement. By encouraging faculty participation in communities and supporting diverse teaching methods, we have achieved remarkable results.
Highlight: University-Level Mechanism for Innovative Courses – Centralized Experimental Curriculum
To further encourage faculty engagement in course development and innovative teaching, the university launched a centralized experimental curriculum mechanism in 2019. This initiative allows flexible scheduling, breaks traditional course frameworks, and fosters interdisciplinary teaching. Partial funding also supports inviting domestic and international experts to strengthen teaching effectiveness.
In 2025, 10 departments offered 18 courses under this program, including Orchestral Ensemble, Jean Geoffroy Master Lecture on Cross-Disciplinary Music, Daf Performance and Rhythm Training, Ryukyu Sanshin, Gas Kiln Ceramic Workshop, Natural Materials Workshop, Poetry as Action, Dance Costume Ergonomics, Costume Dyeing Techniques, Performance Projects, Contemporary Dance Workshops I–IV, Interdisciplinary Sound Installation, Essay and Nonfiction Writing Workshop, Immersive Sound Interaction and Recording Technology, and Art, Creativity, and Leadership. A total of 432 students enrolled.
Figure 1. Concentrated experimental course ‘Contemporary Dance Performance Workshop II’ – teaching scene.
Highlight: The Hero’s Journey – Interdisciplinary Arts Seminar
The interdisciplinary course “The Hero’s Journey: Arts Academic Seminar” builds on the principles of self-directed learning, social-emotional learning, and cross-disciplinary exploration. Guided by multiple faculty members, it inspires creative thinking and provides a collaborative platform where students from diverse backgrounds co-create and perform, strengthening interdisciplinary practice and critical engagement with social issues.
The course was designed with guidance from Dr. Wu Jing-Ji and featured guest lecturers including Hsu Chia-Wei (Hsin-Kang Arts and Culture Foundation), Wei Chih-Hung (PXMart Cultural Foundation), Tu Li-Chin (Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute), and Liao Chien-Hsiung (Ministry of Culture). In total, five lecturers participated. For the first time, students from NCCU and NYCU were invited to enroll, with 12 students completing the course.
Figure 2. Graduate Program ‘The Hero’s Journey: Interdisciplinary Academic Project in the Arts’ course.
2. Building Professional and Interdisciplinary Experience to Enhance Learning Effectiveness
Our arts curriculum integrates theory and practice, emphasizing public presentation and exchange of student achievements, as well as hosting international conferences to foster global academic and artistic dialogue. By inviting distinguished faculty and artists from Taiwan and abroad, students gain hands-on industry experience through “learning by doing,” strengthening employability.
Through general education, reading and writing, programming, innovation and entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary courses and activities, the university cultivates solid foundational skills, critical thinking, and humanistic literacy. Students also receive cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary training, broadening their perspectives in the arts.
Figure 3. College of Music – Asian Contemporary Chamber Ensemble Workshop Project.
Figure 4. College of Cultural Resources – Arts Creation Program: Global and Taiwan Performing Arts Course Workshop.
Highlight: International Collaborative Teaching –Dance Creation Platform
The Dance Creation Platform nurtures young creators through long-term cooperation with Japan’s Za-Koenji Dance Award. In 2025, activities at Nara Historical Arts and Culture Village, alongside Tenri University’s centennial and the Ministry of Sports’ 70th anniversary, enabled deep exchange with Tenri and Osaka University faculty and students.
Students experienced how Japanese dance blends structure with expressive freedom, gaining broader artistic vision, creative insight, and cross-cultural understanding—laying the groundwork for future international engagement.
Figure 5. Northern Wind – Martial Arts Workshop with Tenri University (Osaka) and the Department of Dance.
Highlight: 2025 Asian Theatre International Conference – Performing Cities, Staging Nature
The 12th Asian Theatre Research Conference was held November 2–3, 2024. Guided by Professors Lin Yu-Bing and Chen Chien-Cheng, graduate students joined the 13th conference Performing Cities, Staging Nature at Osaka University, supported by Higher Education Sprout scholarships.After a semester of lectures, group discussions, and mentoring, students refined their research into English papers and presented them at the conference.
Highlight: International Engagement Program – College of Fine Arts
In 2025, the Taiwan–Japan Exchange Program included research presentations at Tokyo University of the Arts and participation in the YANARI curatorial forum at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. Students also observed the international exhibition Piercing Through A Porous Archive, producing first-hand reports.
Collaboration with Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts was further strengthened by sending three students for a one-month residency and faculty exchange, achieving meaningful bilateral cooperation and greatly expanding students’ global vision and presentation skills.
Figure 6. Creative Research Project in Residency, Okinawa.
Highlight: General Education Interdisciplinary Innovation Program
Each semester, the General Education Center offers 6–8 core courses that integrate professional and general fields, cultivating students’ humanistic literacy. Teaching assistants are trained to collaborate with faculty, exploring knowledge-building and learning methods, while practical fieldwork helps prepare the next generation of arts educators. The “Yaoyan Award Program” encourages students to publish creative works, and writing instructors design diverse assignments to foster media submissions and strengthen learning outcomes.
In 2025, a total of 16 core courses were offered (8 in Fall 2024 and 8 in Spring 2025), along with 27 core lectures (17 in Fall 2024 and 10 in Spring 2025).
Industry University Cooperation
The university advances distinctive cross-college collaborative courses, integrating strengths across disciplines. Guided by project-based learning, students create innovative works that merge art and technology, bringing technological perspectives into the arts. Industry–government–academia partnerships further cultivate professional talent and promote the university’s arts festivals on the global stage.
With long-term, structured support for self-directed learning, this interdisciplinary model provides Taiwan with a unique and irreplaceable educational function.
1. Tech-art courses foster cross-disciplinary creation, shaping an international festival through industry–academia collaboration.
Highlight: 2025 Guandu Light Art Festival “Illusonic”
Hosted by the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts, the 10th Guandu Light Art Festival will shine from October 17 to 25, 2025 under the theme Illusonic. Responding to the curatorial question “How does sound summon light?”, the festival moves for the first time into the new Tech-Art Museum’s black box theater, offering audiences an immersive multi-sensory experience through precise sound-light orchestration and expanding the possibilities of light art in the digital era.
The exhibition features five works combining kinetic devices, lighting, lasers, AR, and solar energy. Highlights include Lunar Eclipse, which transforms solar power into sound, and Above the Waves, which translates real-time global lightning data into audiovisual form—guiding audiences from “seeing light” to “hearing light.”
In addition, ten sound art performances will be staged during the festival, with 16 artists from Austria, Australia, Canada, and Taiwan. These cross-disciplinary creators experiment with dynamic light fields and sound-light synchronization, reshaping the grammar of participatory media systems.
Figures 7–8. 2025 Guandu Light Art Festival Illusonic.
Highlight: 2025 Guandu International Animation Festival
In 2025, the Guandu International Animation Festival celebrates its 15th edition with the theme “A 15-Dimensional Journey of Animation.” Inspired by the concept of the multiverse, audiences are invited on a visual adventure across fifteen dimensions, exploring how animated characters traverse diverse times, styles, and media to reveal the boundless possibilities of animation art.
This year’s festival presents a wide spectrum of works and, for the first time, collaborates with two renowned art schools—Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD, USA) and GOBELINS Paris (France)—to showcase selected student films and host workshops. German experimental animator Max Hattler will lead students in breaking conventional notions of animation and developing new visual languages, while festival journalist Nancy Denney-Phelps will conduct intensive workshops that challenge participants to create under time constraints, enhancing creativity and imagination, and discussing the influence of the animation art market.
Figure 9. Main Visual of the 2025 Guandu International Animation Festival.
Highlight: 2025 Guandu Film Festival
Now in its 17th year, the Guandu Film Festival remains a key platform for Taiwanese film students to showcase work and gain practical skills, while fostering exchanges with international film schools. It strengthens global ties and shares film resources with local communities, fulfilling its role as both cultural bridge and educational hub.
This year’s program featured 3 pre-festival screenings, 6 sessions of domestic student shorts, 2 sessions of international student shorts, 1 focus filmmaker screening, and 1 outdoor campus screening, attracting 1,864 viewers.
International guests included Professor Shuchi Kothari and two students from the University of Auckland, who delivered 2 lectures with about 90 participants. A “Filmmakers’ Night” also gathered 43 local and international creators for exchange.
相關連結｜第十七屆關渡電影節網站
Figure 10. 17th Guandu Film Festival – Outdoor Screening Event.
Highlight: 2025 Guandu Arts Festival
The School of Theatre presents “Gazing at the Stage—Nie Guangyan and Our Theatre Era”, showcasing over a hundred of Nie’s design sketches, studio artifacts, and reconstructed stage models. Integrated with courses, the exhibition allows students to learn his design principles through practice, complemented by interviews, guided tours, lectures, and a timeline of his evolving style—reflecting four decades of dedication to Taiwan’s theatre.
The School of Music uses music as a medium for cultural exchange, exploring and passing on Eastern traditions. Through cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovative performances—such as Tracing the Origins of the Shamisen and 2025 Guandu Water Dance—the concerts highlight both diversity and modern transformation of traditional music.
The School of Dance introduces international training systems and reconstructs masterworks, advancing the Asia-Pacific dance platform and cross-border workshops. By integrating body, sound, and technology, and guided by faculty vision, students expand their professional skills, global outlook, and creative practice.
相關連結｜關渡藝術節粉絲專頁
Figure 11. Main Visual of the Special Exhibition Gazing at the Stage — Nie Guangyan and Our Theatre Era.
Figure 12. 2025 Course Presentation: Tradition and Innovation of Balinese Gamelan.
Figure 13. College of Dance 2025 Year-End Performance Earth’s Core.
2. Enhancing Learning Spaces and Entrepreneurship Education: Opening New Pathways for Students’ Artistic Careers
Our arts entrepreneurship program aims to transform creative practice into entrepreneurial spirit and foster a culture of innovation on campus. The Office of Research and Development has established an incubation and mentoring system, encouraging students to form teams, propose projects, and secure external resources. Activities include analyzing local business models, applying design thinking, visiting creative industries, sharing experiences in community-based art collaborations, and training in proposal writing, material collection, and presentation skills—helping students build a complete process from problem observation to project execution.
In addition, a fully equipped media production base has been developed, integrating industry–academia collaboration. With international-standard facilities and spaces, it supports teaching, strengthens students’ professional skills, and provides resources for future productions and performances.
Highlight: NTUA Arts Entrepreneurship Award “Ben-Yi Prize”
The Ben-Yi Prize – Arts Innovation Practice Competition uses a challenge-and-reward system to guide student teams through the entrepreneurial process. Centered on developing creative ideas and strengthening practical skills, it offers public pitching, professional mentorship, and tangible resources. This year, over 100 participants joined; after initial proposal reviews, 8 teams advanced to the incubation stage, receiving a total of NT$215,000 in seed funding for early project development.
Figure 14. Entrepreneurship Practice Course at Xingbinshan Co-Creation Studio.
Highlight: XMIT Project – Upgrading Media Production Base
The XMIT Project continues to enhance the S9 and S10 media studios, building sound design facilities that meet international standards. Students gain systematic training with industry-level equipment, developing practical skills in advanced hardware and software setup.
In 2025, 30 lectures and workshops were held to strengthen core competencies and industry–academia collaboration. Partnerships were also initiated with Taipei Music Center and the National Taiwan Science Education Center, with plans to expand cross-disciplinary projects and encourage student proposals through resource-sharing and funding mechanisms.
This year, four students extended their creative projects into recognized initiatives, winning support from programs such as the 2025 Taipei Music Center OPEN LAB Talent Program, Music Production Grant (New Voices), Youth Overseas Dream Fund, and New Year’s Eve Fireworks Music Selection.
Figure 15. Foley Workshop – Demonstration of Food Stirring Sound Effect.
Make Resources More Public
1. Strengthening Access and Support Mechanisms to Promote Social Mobility
Aligned with Taiwan’s Higher Education Sprout Project, the university has enhanced assistance for students from economically or culturally disadvantaged backgrounds. Through diverse admission channels—including individual recruitment, recommendation, application, technical/vocational pathways, and the “Special Admissions” program introduced in 2019—the system ensures equal opportunity and supports talented students entering higher arts education.
From 2018 to 2025, disadvantaged applicants consistently accounted for 5–7% of total enrollment, with individual recruitment as the primary pathway (over 80% of applicants, 4–7% disadvantaged).
To broaden outreach, the university organized more than 100 art experience and admission promotion activities up to 2024, including campus visits, lectures, camps, and rural tours, engaging schools nationwide from elementary to high school, across northern, central, southern, and island regions.
Figure 16. Student Statistics – 2025 Admission Promotion Activities.
Highlight: Special Admissions Program
To support students from economically or culturally disadvantaged backgrounds or with limited learning resources, the university has refined its special admissions mechanism. Departments set eligibility criteria that go beyond academic grades, offering opportunities, guidance, and resources to applicants such as overseas Taiwanese, new immigrants and their children, experimental education students, or those holding foreign credentials with recognized test scores.
In 2025, 23 disadvantaged students applied, including 17 to the Department of Theatre, which uses this pathway to identify highly talented performers and creators whose abilities may not be reflected in traditional academic metrics. Admitted students receive continuous mentorship, creative grants, and diverse financial aid, enabling them to focus on professional training and artistic practice while building independence and career development.
Indigenous Student Resource Center – Counseling Outcomes and Building a Culturally Friendly Campus
Established on July 1, 2020, with an inauguration ceremony on October 22, the Indigenous Student Resource Center provides one-stop counseling services to ensure students feel supported, while fostering diverse talent development and a culturally inclusive environment. In collaboration with the Office of Academic Affairs, IT Center, and Counseling Center, the university has begun mapping students’ language abilities and home communities to better understand their needs.
The center continues to promote Indigenous education for all, encouraging faculty and staff to join cultural lectures, traditional music and dance workshops, and community tours. Partnering with the Indigenous student club DALAN, it organizes joint harvest festivals and other activities to cultivate multicultural awareness and a friendly campus atmosphere. Ongoing initiatives include fieldwork sharing sessions, cultural walk workshops, and inter-university exchanges, enriching cultural dialogue and engagement.
Highlight: NTUA Open Resources and Performance Transparency
Each year NTUA achieves significant results in teaching, performance, arts education, and community engagement. In 2025, the Spring Breeze, Arts for Sustainability – NTUA Open Door program offered courses for the public, including a workshop led by Yu Wan-Lun of Belgium’s Peeping Tom, featuring excerpts from Huang Yi’s Flowing Fish (2009, commissioned by Cloud Gate).
The university also ensures transparency by publishing performance and academic outcomes through multiple channels: the Ministry of Education’s information platform, a dedicated NTUA app, the official website, and the Higher Education Sprout Project site. Achievements are further shared via social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, making school performance accessible to all.
相關連結｜本校校務資訊公開平臺
本校高等教育深耕計畫網站
Figure 17. 2025 NTUA Open House – Art Sustainability.
Fulfill Social Responsibility
NTUA established the Center for Arts and Social Practice to build partnerships with local communities, systematize “local studies” cultural knowledge, and transform regional culture into creative works and performances—fulfilling the university’s social responsibility as an arts institution.
In 2023, the University Council approved the creation of a Sustainability Office, recognizing the global importance of sustainable development. For arts education, sustaining artistic and cultural practices is essential. The office serves as a platform to promote “sustainability in the arts” and coordinates university-wide initiatives for long-term impact.
1. Social Responsibility Practice Program
Highlight: 2025 Nao-Re Guandu Festival
Since 2018, Nao-Re Guandu has grown into a community festival rooted in local care, connecting neighborhoods through art. Supported by the Guandu Cultural and Arts Foundation, it expanded into a 2.0 model during the pandemic. In 2025, the festival enters its 3.0 phase, focusing on deeper ties with everyday community life and building a sustainable cultural axis with schools, residents, organizations, and local businesses.
The 2025 program spans spring and autumn seasons, each lasting 2–3 months, with workshops, lectures, and cross-disciplinary performances that integrate local culture into daily life. The autumn opening on October 18 at NTUA features walking tours, markets, community shows, and competitions, showcasing community energy. From November to December, events extend into residents’ daily lives, strengthening campus–community connections and offering close-up interaction and appreciation.
Figures 18–19. 2025 Guandu Hot Festival.
Highlight: Local Arts Festivals & Community Projects
- Indigenous Eco-Cultural Sustainability (Jianshi Tianpu & Zhenxibao Villages)
Fieldwork workshops combined farming education and cultural immersion. Students joined millet sowing with local children (25 participants) and later explored ancestral teachings, reconciliation rituals, and ecological farming (23 participants).
- Laeyi Gaojian Village House Survey
Focused on cultural preservation and architectural knowledge transfer through mapping, oral history, and GIS training. Activities included building surveys, drone workshops, and database creation linking stories, spaces, and architecture.
- Post-Disaster Community Revitalization
Arts residency and cultural tours in Pingtung villages connected history, ecology, and traditions. Students engaged in guided visits, indigenous crafts, and inter-community exchanges (36 participants).
- Truku “True Rhythm” Project
A three-phase program: entering communities to learn rituals and crafts, engaging elders through dance for health and vitality, and participating in thanksgiving ceremonies. Activities included dance training, workshops, and field practice (45 participants).
- Immersive Indigenous Dance Learning
Structured in three stages: lectures and workshops with indigenous dance leaders, cultural immersion at Taitung’s annual hunting festival, and reflective exchanges leading to new creative ideas.
- Songs of the Hengchun Peninsula
Field studies, folk song appreciation, elder interviews, and board game design addressed gaps in local memory. Activities included cultural walks, research presentations, and community participation (59 participants).
- Sound Memory & Local Society
Promoted traditional music transmission through off-campus teaching, service practice, and campus courses. Students learned Beigang lantern horse traditions, taught percussion and dance in schools (262 participants), and held discussions on music and heritage.
2. Campus Practice and Promotion of Arts Sustainability
Centered on sustainability, the project integrates campus culture and teaching with ecological tours, natural material workshops, and experimental sustainable art practices. In 2025, NTUA collaborated with departments, administrative units, and industry partners to promote sustainability through public exhibitions, workshops, micro-credit courses, and media outreach, strengthening the visibility of sustainable actions across campus.
Highlight: SDG Touring Exhibition – Colors of the Tamsui River
Focusing on the Tamsui River, the exhibition combined art creation, ecological education, and natural material practice, becoming NTUA’s largest sustainability showcase. Co-created by 24 students and faculty with 17 corporate partners, it featured works using plant-based inks and river themes. The program included one exhibition, one corporate workshop, and two public workshops, attracting 1,300 participants overall, with more than 200 attending the opening.
Figures 20–21. 2025 Tamsui River Ecological Colors SDG Sustainability Touring Exhibition.
3. Arts-Based Service Learning: From Local Communities to Global Engagement
NTUA promotes social connection and responsibility through four initiatives: cross-disciplinary course collaboration, arts for social support, service-learning competence, and global citizenship. Using service learning, students engage schools, social organizations, and communities with performances and creative activities, gaining practical experience while giving back to society.
Long-term partnerships with the New Taipei Autism Services Association and Duobao Arts Academy provide camps and courses during winter and summer breaks, where music, painting, and creative arts accompany autistic youth, fostering mutual understanding. The university also organizes arts camps in indigenous villages, combining field visits, cultural research, and exchanges with local youth and elders to bridge resource gaps and deepen cultural ties.