2019 achievements

Implement innovation in higher education and improve teaching quality

Description of implementation and highlights

The University implemented project management and improvement measures from 2018 to 2019 based on problem analysis for “Implement teaching innovation and improve teaching quality” and performance indicators set by the Ministry of Education. For improvement of various problems and indicators, indicators corresponding to various methods are as follows:

The University implemented 18 projects to “Implement teaching innovation and improve teaching quality,” most of which develop students’ workplace competitiveness through integration (e.g., using problem-based learning (PBL) to enhance students’ practical knowledge learning results). Hence, every project can achieve at least one indicator (e.g., simultaneously achieving innovative teaching and practical abilities) of the Higher Education SPROUT Project.

One or two highlights of interdisciplinary micro-programs (20), interdisciplinary credit programs (5), graduate course modules for industrial research (2), innovative teaching and PBL courses (51), digital courses on professional and practical technologies (17), and on-site professional and practical workshop courses (31) are described below:

Ministry of Education performance indicators：Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching, processing concepts, and programming ability.

“5+2” Industry indicators：New agriculture, smart machinery.

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators：Industry-academia connections, digital information technology.

Four main focuses：Technology-based agriculture

Three indicators： Professional

Visited Feton Automation Industrial Co., Ltd., ICP DAS, Monicon Instrument, Tinfar Environment Monitor Tech, Co., Ltd., and Blutech Inc. to plan featured courses with a total of 10 credits, new courses with a total of 5 credits, and invited two mentors to participate in the courses, namely Liu Keng-Yu at ICP DAS and Wang Chao-Ming at CTS Components Taiwan.

Teaching highlights：

Python is used to develop IoT sensing equipment for students to use in practice.
Develops students’ interdisciplinary learning ability for programming, sensors, and IoT.
Modbus RTU is used to develop IoT sensing equipment for students to use in practice.
Develops students’ interdisciplinary learning ability for programming, communication protocol, and IoT.

Teaching results：

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Ministry of Education performance indicators：Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching, processing concepts, and programming ability.

“5+2” Industry indicators：New agriculture, smart machinery.

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators：Industry-academia connections, digital information technology.

Four main focuses：Technology-based agriculture

Three indicators： Professional

The Robotic Arm Design and Application Interdisciplinary Micro-program was established to help students with a background in mechanical engineering gain a second expertise, and also trains their practical skills in mechanical engineering and robotic arms.

Teaching highlights：

Completed designs are included in teaching materials and train students to independently design mechanisms. This example teaches students to create their own interface, and use it to operate the robotic arm. This enriches teaching contents for students to not only learn programming, how to operate robotic arms, and robotic arm related technologies and applications, but also understand practical applications through design applications. The complete description from simple to hard allows students to learn complete knowledge and practical techniques.
All of the course materials are self-prepared, including introduction to industrial robots, applications of robots, types and specifications of robots, robot kinematics, important parts of robots, and taking robots apart, and a large amount of pictures and videos are used to assist in teaching to improve students’ learning results.
Guiding students to obtain professional certifications: Ministry of Labor CNC Turning Class B Certification: 10, Milling Class B Certification: 10, Mechatronics Class C Certification: 2

Teaching results：

Interdisciplinary application of robotic arms and image processing technology to roll out dough.
This example combines a program interface with image processing technology, which is used to determine if the dough matches the expected size. If it does not match the size, the robotic arm will roll out the dough once as it is programmed, and will repeat the process until the dough reaches the expected size.
Interdisciplinary application of robotic arms and image processing technology for pineapple skin peeling.
This example combines a program interface with image processing technology, which is used to determine the position and thickness of pineapple skin to peel, and uses a robotic arm to peel pineapple skin. It also analyzes how to completely peel the skin without wasting any of the fruit.
Interdisciplinary learning – 1st place in the 2019 National Vocational and Technical College Student Project Competition (Water purification device for aquaculture
Taipei Lantern Festival – 1st place in the large theme lanterns division

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Ministry of Education performance indicators：Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators：Industry-academia connections, cross-regional connection to global networks.

Four main focuses：Platinum society

Three indicators：Professional, international

For the 20-credit interdisciplinary credit program on fitness and sports coaching, courses on “sports psychology and leadership, weight training coaching practices, practical applications of sports data monitoring instruments, personal sports training and coaching, coaching techniques and oral instructions” were planned with Brain & Body Academy, Integration Sports, AFAA Taiwan Co., Ltd., Dongzi Consulting Co., Ltd., and Mind Fitness.

Teaching highlights：

Jointly planned personal sports training and coaching courses with Dongzi Consulting Co., Ltd., invited internationally renowned lecturer Sato and Chairperson Hsu Cheng-Hsien to teach the course, and assisted students in obtaining the NASM-CPT certification, which is an international certification recognized in the global fitness industry, thereby aligning theory and practice and increasing employment opportunities.
Collaborated with AFAA Taiwan Co., Ltd. and invited President Chiu Hsien-Kui to teach the course for weight training coaches, and assisted students in obtaining the AFAA-WT certification, which is an international certification recognized by the global fitness industry.
Collaborated with Brain & Body Academy in jointly planning a sports psychology and leadership course, and its CEO Cheng Nai-Wen personally taught the course.
Collaborated with Mind Fitness in jointly planning a course on coaching techniques and oral instructions, and invited Luo You-Wei, the founder of Mind Fitness to personally teach students.
Students of the four programs continued to provide services at Fitness Factory and sports centers to continue improving their professional competencies.

Teaching results：

Trained 67 students to obtain the AFAA-WT certification between 2018 and 2019.
Trained 20 students to obtain the NASM-CPT certification in 2019.
Trained students for 22 sessions of the National Tech Fitness Testing Project and provided service to 776 participants.
Fitness Factory directly provided internship positions for students taking the program, and held interviews at the University.
4 students won awards in the 2019 National Collegiate Bodybuilding Competition.

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Ministry of Education performance indicators：Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching.

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators：Interdisciplinary professional knowledge, industry-academia connections, digital information technology.

Four main focuses：Platinum society

Three indicators：Professional

Teaching highlights：

This is a 10-credit master’s program offered by the Office of Physical Education, Department of Recreational Sport & Health Promotion, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Biomechatronics Engineering, and Department of Management Information System.
The collaboration between industry and research institute allows master's students to understand where there is room for innovation and applications of sports science. Students can learn different aspects of innovation in sports science, and conduct research aligned with the industry’s needs.
Muscle sensors, force plates, and high-speed cameras are used for teaching, so that students will understand how to use different instruments, and also learn how to analyze data and interpret its meaning.

Teaching results：

Engaged in industry-academia collaboration with Thinkchange Composite to provide guidance to master's and doctoral students in R&D.
12 papers in domestic seminars (Outstanding paper award * 5)
2 papers in overseas seminars
5 papers published in journals (TSSCI*1)
10 innovative products (Honorable mention*2, Excellence Award*1)

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Ministry of Education performance indicators：Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching, processing concepts, and programming ability.

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators：Digital information technology.

Three indicators： Professional

Courses on fluid mechanics in the past covered relatively more theories, which caused students to lose interest in class. The Department of Vehicle Engineering adopted the PBL approach and had students make a simple submarine, collect and organize data, and understand basic principles, achieving learning by doing. After guidance from the instructor, students learn how to analyze problems, how to find and implement solutions, and share results with other groups. The course integrates many subjects, such as thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, mechanics of materials, circuitry, and electronics. This course teaches the design, implementation, and testing of submarine models using the PBL approach. Student feedback shows that over 96% of students agreed that PBL developed their independent thinking and teamwork skills.

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Ministry of Education performance indicators: Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching

5+2 industries: New agriculture

The University’s four main focuses: Technology-based agriculture

Three indicators: Professional

The Graduate Institute of Animal Vaccine Technology focuses on animal vaccine and adjuvant R&D, manufacturing, quality control, and marketing courses. It cultivates high level professional in animal vaccine technology, enhances their independent research ability, and carries out R&D and application of animal vaccine technology in the industry. Vaccination is still be best strategy for preventing animal diseases, and the demand on biological agents is bound to show significant growth in order to prevent antibiotic abuse. It is necessary to let students apply what they learn and cover the last mile in the industry, in order to cultivate high level talent for the development of animal vaccines and adjuvants, and enhance the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s biotechnology products. Hence, three videos on experiments related to the vaccine development process were selected, including separating immunocytes from spleen cells of mice, enzyme immunoassay, and virus collection from chick embryo.

The courses uses videos to assist in teaching, which accelerates students learning speed; the text descriptions and video viewed in class allows students to better understand course contents. It also increases students’ learning interest because lectures are simply text descriptions, but videos draw students’ attention, and the change of pace increases their interest in learning. Furthermore, the Graduate Institute of Animal Vaccine Technology has foreign students and summer students, and the videos were also showed to foreign students with the lecturer translating it into English. The foreign students also said that the method improved their understanding and increased the learning interest during the course.

Ministry of Education performance indicators: Professional and practical technical abilities, innovative teaching, students’ foreign language ability

The University’s interdisciplinary indicators: Industry-academia connections Cross-regional connection to global networks

Four main focuses: Platinum society

Three indicators: Professional, international

This on-site practical course is based on research on leisure marketing and management, coaching techniques, and oral instructions, and takes students on a visit to the fitness industry, fitness training centers, and fitness and sports injury prevention centers on the west coast and in the Midwest of the United States, where they can see the training equipment and course arrangements. This year, the instructor selected institutions from those that were invited to take part in the course, and then students prepared English documents that the instructor proofread. The students were divided into groups for contact and arrangements, and some difficulties were encountered during the process, but the visit was completed after guidance and communication by the instructor.

When students first began their visit, they had trouble communicating with local companies in English. After the instructor began preliminary communication and provided guidance, students slowly began to communicate using simple English. The companies approved of the questions asked by students, and students gained greater confidence from communicating with foreigners. The visit allowed students to gain first hand experience of the fitness industry’s business model overseas, and it also greatly helped improve their English speaking ability. This will greatly benefit the students when they are seeking employment or further education overseas in the future.

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

Goals and Strategies

Strengthening practical abilities is the key to students applying what they learned in the workplace. The University uses the following methods to improve students’ practical abilities:

Offer certification courses to help students obtain certificates, developing their professional competencies and closing the gap between learning and practice.
Establish 5 types of projects to comprehensively improve students’ practical technical abilities.
Produce videos for students to prepare for class and review lessons after class.
Promote specialty teaching teams to develop high level practical skills.
Improve basic teaching facilities and internship sites, and create a teaching environment that resembles the industry.

Changes in outcome

Hiring industry experts to assist in teaching diversifies teaching contents, improves students’ understanding of the industry, and increases the practical experience of full-time teachers. Students also gain the opportunity to learn industry related knowledge and skills, and collaborative teaching strengthens the attitude, response, and interpersonal skills they need in the workplace. A total of 1,050 mentors were hired in 2018 and 2019, and highlight results are as follows:

Department of Mechanical Engineering – Mechatronics and Internship in Mechatronics

Mechatronics is an important certification to the department. This course not only provides students with mechatronics related knowledge and practice, but also cultivates mechatronics talent by preparing students for the Mechatronics Class B and C certifications. The course this semester hired Cheng You-Liang to explain skills certification and operational details to students, and 17 students thus obtained the Mechatronics Class C certification.

To help teachers maintain teaching quality and lift their teaching burden, the University has appointed students with outstanding academic performance to serve as teaching assistants over the years.
304 students were trained as teaching assistants in 2018 and 2019, and provided effective teaching assistance, enhancing this excellent teaching assistance system.
To incorporate IT elements into future courses, teaching assistant training not only includes basic courses, such as communication ability, but also requires the completion of big data analysis courses. Furthermore, advanced courses (including computer programming courses, big data analysis, professional English class, overseas internship simulation and exchange class, and English presentation class) are also provided to enhance the skills of teaching assistants.
After students qualify as teaching assistants, advanced courses are provided to enhance their skills.
Implementation of the teaching assistant system allows students to not only assist in teaching, but also tap into their potential to become interdisciplinary talent.

To broaden students’ practical perspectives and give them the opportunity to experience different work environments, the University directly takes students to learn about industry features in Taiwan and overseas, so that they will be better prepared for the workplace. A total of 1,064 students from 31 divisions in 19 departments participated in 2018 and 2019; the satisfaction of companies that provided internships to students reached 100%, while other companies that did not participate in project were still 14.9% more satisfied compared with before the project. Results are listed below:

Department of Forestry – Forestry Practical Ability Training Program, participation of international students broaden students’ international perspectives

Students operate advanced remote sensing instruments to survey the sample region during the internship course, using high-tech instruments to survey forestry resources. This reduces the survey time and required manpower compared with the conventional survey method. The lecturer also show survey results of the mountain area to students, which allowed students to understand that technological advancements are slowly revealing the value of smart forestry. In the exchange process, Japanese interns were amazed by the abundance and diversity of Taiwan’s forestry resources. After listening to the Japanese students share their experience with forest management in Japan, NPUST students also indicated that they would like to visit Japan to see its forestry in the future if they have the opportunity.

Visits to workplaces allow freshmen to get a taste of what the actual workplace is like, understand practical operations, and see industry trends and needs. It not only broadens their horizons, enhances their expertise and practical experience, and helps them understand what is the right attitude towards work, but also allows freshmen to begin planning for the future and clearly understand what abilities they need to improve, enhancing their employability before college even begins. A total of 45 sessions were organized by 22 departments in 2018 and 2019, and allowed freshmen to experience the workplace.

Certifications required for key industries listed by the government, such as the 5+2 industries and digital economy related industries, were first promoted in 2019.
Certification courses for Smart Apps Creator, e-commerce analyst, e-commerce planner, Internet marketing analyst, and Internet marketing planner were offered with respect to digital economy. Certification courses for UAV (2kg-15kg), UAV (2kg and under), basic electromechanical design for smart agriculture, and patent attorney were offered with respect to technology-based agriculture.
In response to the era of artificial intelligence, students who took the AI micro-credit course offered by College of Professional Studies in the first semester of academic year 2019 were arranged to take the online examination for Microsoft Azure certification. The University continued to promote the iPAS smart production engineer certification of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
A total of 62 professional certification courses were offered in 2019, an increase of 55% compared with the 40 courses offered in 2018.

Offers interdisciplinary credit micro-courses in response to industry demand to build deeper connections with the industry, and cultivates interdisciplinary talent for big data, AI, IoT, and robot industries.
Offered Delta “TFT-LCD industry expert,” “introduction to the display industry,” Starbucks “coffee industry expert,” and Mos Burger “chain restaurant brand management” and “chain restaurant operation practices.”
Industry empowerment micro-school offered 6 courses with a total of 5.5 credits in 2019, and a total of 158 people passed the courses.

In addition to the professional courses offered by each department/institute, the University also offers interdisciplinary course modules: Teachers from different departments combine their expertise and the industry’s needs in planning “interdisciplinary micro-programs,” “interdisciplinary credit programs,” and “graduate course modules for industrial research,” which enhance students’ knowledge of fields beyond their department and develop their interdisciplinary abilities. A total of 1,320 students registered in 2018 and 2019, and 207 students completed the programs or course modules as of January 2019. A total of 500 students are expected to complete the programs or course modules this year, which is an increase of 140% compared to the number of students in 2015-2017 (86 in total). The University utilized UCAN to analyze the general and professional competencies of students after taking the programs. Statistics show that students’ average score for general competencies was 3.71 points (5-point scale) before taking the courses, and 3.91 points after taking the courses, an increase of 5%; the average score for professional competencies was 3.37 points (5-point scale) before taking courses, and 3.6 points after taking courses, an increase of 7%. This test was administered to 837 students in 21 programs and has extremely high validity and reliability. Hence, students’ general and professional competencies both improved after taking the programs.

The University has established numerous entrepreneurship internship sites for students to experience what it is like to start a business with the assistance and instructions of teachers and mentors. Students gain practical business management experience and achieve the goals of innovation and entrepreneurship that the Ministry of Education is strongly promoting on campus. Students are thus able to immediately enter the workplace without much of a gap in workplace skills. Three featured internship sites on campus are listed below.

1. SPA & Beauty Center

The SPA & Beauty Center mainly uses products development by the University’s faculty members, and students learn practices of business management in the process of providing SPA and beauty services to the University’s faculty, staff, and students. Courses combine teaching and internships and use products developed by the University’s faculty members, which encourages faculty members to continue developing new products, treatments, and techniques. The center provides students with a platform for learning through practice. Combined with the beauty therapist certification mechanism, students who obtain the certification will be able to provide services to customers, learn business management, and also gain abilities necessary for starting their own business, such as store affairs, personnel, finance, and marketing management.

2. Internship Restaurant

The internship restaurant provides students who have been through 2-6 months of off-campus internship training with an entrepreneurship internship. The jointly manage the internship restaurant with the instructor providing assistance and instructions. The purpose of this combination of off-campus and on-campus internships is to show the results of innovation and entrepreneurship. Students go through the entire process of organizing, planning, simulating, and discussing ingredient selection, cooking, service, drinks at the bar, marketing planning, and film production. Students are free to make decisions as if they were starting their own business.

3. Industry-academia collaboration internship travel agency

The Guest House has the “Richmond Tours Industry-academia Collaboration Internship Travel Agency,” which utilizes the abundant experience and resources of Richmond Tours to assist the Department of Modern Language, Department of Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Department of Recreational Sport & Health Promotion in training professional talent for tourism and tours. Employees of Richmond Tours are stationed there to instruct students of the Department of Modern Language who have selected professional courses during their internship at the travel agency. This closes the gap between education and employment and creates opportunities for industry-academia collaboration.

Teachers are encouraged to use videos as teaching materials in their classes, in order to enhance students’ professional and practical technical abilities, and develop the habit of actively learning.

Videos must be completed before a course is offered, and must uploaded to the digital platform for students to preview before class and review after class, so that they become more familiar with the professional technique, making practice of actual operations smoother.

A total of 17 videos were completed in 2018 and 2019. Compared with before digital teaching materials were used, students’ satisfaction with their learning results reached 9.3 points (10 points in total) after using digital teaching materials. An example is given below:

Department of Plant Industry – Plant propagation internship

Plant propagation is the foundation of horticultural production. Videos on manual sowing techniques, practical operation of automatic seeder, and chip budding technique were produced for students to become more familiar with propagation technologies.

The teaching videos explain the operation process using actual plants, materials, or equipment, so that students can more quickly gain a better understanding of contents. This prevents too many students or detailed actions performed on site from affecting students’ learning and lowering their learning results.

The videos were showed in the classes “Internship in Plant Propagation Technology” and “Horticultural Science Internship.” A total of 96 students used this teaching resource for learning, and watched the videos before the internship course; 71.1% of students replied that the videos helped them gain a better understanding of teaching contents. 57.7% of students felt that watching the videos first saved them time in class.

Goals and Strategies

In the future, learning will not be limited to classrooms, and the purpose of teaching innovation is to help teachers find the most suitable teaching method to improve students’ learning results. The University uses the following approach for teaching innovation:

Organized seminars on innovative teaching courses to improve teachers’ innovative teaching ability.
Established projects and required teachers implementing the projects to receive continuing education in teaching innovation.
Adjusted teachers’ innovative teaching based on student feedback.
Added and amended measures and regulations to encourage innovative teaching.
Improved the environment and facilities of teaching spaces on campus.

Changes in outcome

Implement innovative teaching models, encourage teachers to engage in innovative teaching based on the professional field of courses, and incorporate PBL into course design, in order to improve teachers’ teaching quality and students’ learning results. A total of 51 courses were offered to 2,729 students in 2018 and 2019, and significantly improved students’ self-assessed learning results from 8.6 points to 9.2 points (10 points in total) after taking the PBL courses.

To provide students with flexible and diverse learning channels, enhance students’ interdisciplinary competitiveness, interdisciplinary, integrated courses with innovative contents were designed in coordination with the innovation of interdisciplinary teaching by multiple teachers, which enriches course contents. A total of 33 courses taught by multiple teachers were offered in 2018 and 2019, and students’ self-assessed learning results reached 9.13 points (10 points in total) after taking the courses.

On-site practical courses not only broaden students’ perspectives of practice, but also facilitate exchanges between teachers and industry. Learning at multiple locations helps teachers to understand the industry’s needs and adjust courses. It also improves students’ understanding of the industry’s different needs, so that students can see future possibilities. An example is given below:

The Department of Plant Medicine extends professional courses to practical courses, and strengthens the practical skills of plant doctors in the field by going off-campus to see crops suitable for different regions of Taiwan, where diseases and pests occur, and treatment methods. With the need for a Plant Doctor Act in Taiwan, students that take the courses will be trained into front-line talent. The courses also allows teachers to understand the industry’s needs. Visits to the industry give students a better understanding of plant doctors and the industry’s needs. Professor Robert J. McGovern, an international scholar, was invited to share his professional experience and the attitude that professionals should have, and provide positive stimuli to teachers and students.

Flexible credit programs that adopt PBL to better meet industry needs are offered encourage teachers to develop different types of courses and assist students in learning practical and interdisciplinary knowledge. The programs provide students with interdisciplinary learning opportunities through flexible credits, flexible teachers, flexible hours, and flexible locations. The University offered a total of 203 courses, including 177 micro-courses and 26 Shen-Wan courses, in 2018 and 2019.

To improve students basic and practical operation abilities, besides gaining practical experience through internship courses, students are also encouraged to use audiovisual teaching materials to improve their proficiency through practical training, and also develop the habit of self-learning and improvement after class. The University organized video production training workshops and invited teachers to receive training on digital video production. A total of 12 video production courses were held in 2018 and 2019, course contents include apps, video editing software, commercial or general digital photography, micro-film production, and mobile phone filming. This workshops will cause more teachers to engage in teaching method adjustment and improvement.

To provide teachers and students with an environment for innovative, interactive learning, the “smart innovative teaching classroom” designed a multi-purpose, interactive, interdisciplinary learning space for group discussions based on the concept of building blocks. The classroom has a multi-purpose learning system for teachers to simultaneously project the image on their monitor, so that student can rapidly understand operating procedures.

Goals and Strategies

The expertise students obtain in departments is their foundation in their future workplace, and the diverse perspectives they obtain from interdisciplinary thinking is the beginning of future innovation in the field. The University started by adjusting the school affairs system and bridged departments for interdisciplinary learning:

Adjusted the school affairs system, increased the number of elective credits from other departments, and increase the freedom of taking courses in different fields.
Offered different types of interdisciplinary credit programs, lowered the difficulty, and provided students with diverse options.
Implemented interdisciplinary practical programs to strengthen students’ interdisciplinary knowledge.
Administered learning assessment questionnaires for students to assess their own learning results.

Changes in outcome

To enhance the interdisciplinary core technical abilities and practical skills of college students. Departments engage in cross-department collaboration corresponding to practical talent required by the industry, and strengthen students interdisciplinary professional and practical operation skills, plan programs with 18 or more credits that match industry trends and provide in-depth interdisciplinary learning, and utilize flexible credit courses to increase students’ interdisciplinary knowledge beyond the professional knowledge of their department, so as to cultivate college students into interdisciplinary talent needed by the industry.

Interdisciplinary credit programs are credit programs jointly offered by different departments, and combine different professional fields to cultivate students with interdisciplinary technologies and knowledge. For example, the “Sustainable Design and Regional Innovation Interdisciplinary Credit Program” allows students of the Graduate Institute of Landscape Architecture and Recreation Management and Department of Forestry to learn about ecological travel, leisure agriculture, and healing environment design on the basis of their original expertise.

A total of 5 programs were offered in 2018 and 2019, a total of 284 students registered for the programs, and 3 students completed the programs in academic year 2019. Since the credit programs require 18 credits or above, students require at least 4 semesters to complete program. Some programs were offered in the first semester of academic year 2019, so scores have not been announced yet. Hence, the number of students who completed the program is still relatively low, but is expected to reach 50 students or above after the semester ends.

Based on the department’s expertise and interdisciplinary themes required by specific industries, the programs aim to increase students’ understanding of industry technologies and increase the breadth of their knowledge. A team of teachers from different departments and mentors was formed and planned 6-10 credits of interdisciplinary courses. Mentors are able to provide professional and interdisciplinary practical experience.

Interdisciplinary micro-programs are mainly based on a single department/institute, and offer interdisciplinary courses, including Shen-Wan and micro-credit courses for a specific theme based on the industry’s needs, in which another department/institute or industry mentor provides students with interdisciplinary knowledge or skills. For example, the cosmetics and health food industries involve biotechnology, food science, and fashion design, so biotechnology, healthcare, and cosmetics industry interdisciplinary micro-programs provide students with an understanding of interdisciplinary knowledge on raw materials (plant cultivation), production (product manufacturing), and industry (cosmetics, healthcare applications, and marketing), and a total of 19 programs was offered in 2018 and 2019. A total of 1,025 students registered for the program and 202 students completed the program in 2019. The completion rate reached 20% in only 2 years, and is expected to reach 50% this year.

The graduate course modules aim to strengthen the practical R&D abilities of graduate students, and cultivate R&D talent with management and problem-solving abilities. The course modules combine industry-academia collaboration with key technologies for interdisciplinary industrial development, such as smart electric vehicles, and incorporate R&D, smart management, and interdisciplinary knowledge into courses or theses to increase employment rate.

The graduate course modules aim to improve the applicability and practicality of theses/dissertations in the industry, close the gap between research and application, and allow master’s and doctoral students to become aligned with the industry while they are still in school. For example, students in the Department of Recreational Sport & Health Promotion studying “innovative sports technology” learn about the latest product trends and R&D requirements through on-site discussions with the industry, and then take related courses and conduct research for their thesis with the assistance of mentors. A total of 2 programs were offered in 2018 and 2019, 11 students took the programs, and 2 students completed the programs.

To develop students’ self-learning ability, enhance their interdisciplinary learning, and increase their flexibility for development, the University plans to establish “Regulations for Selecting a Second Expertise,” and allow students to find another expertise, which is not from their department, that they are interested in or enhance other traits they have.

The Regulations for Selecting a Second Expertise specifies that students may freely choose professional courses from another department, in addition to the graduation credits for their department, and a Second Expertise Certificate will be issued by the department after they complete 10 credits. At present, 27 students of the University are taking a second expertise.

Interdisciplinary micro-courses are offered to encourage students to engage in interdisciplinary learning under the premise of not increasing (or only slightly increasing) graduation credits. The design of flexible credits (6 credits) provides students with greater flexibility for learning. The courses are hands-on courses in-line with students’ interest and needs, and provides students with autonomous/diverse learning channels with fewer theories and more hands-on experience for happy learning, allowing students to quickly begin learning, properly plan their career, and improve their employability. Besides improving students’ learning motive, the courses also develop key abilities, interdisciplinary abilities, and employability. A total of 1,553 students passed the micro-courses in the 1st semester of academic year 2019, in which the College of Agriculture accounted for 25.50%, the College of Engineering accounted for 24.66%, the College of Management accounted for 28.20%, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences accounted for 19.19%, the International College accounted for 1.42%, and the College of Veterinary Medicine accounted for 1.03%, showing students’ need for interdisciplinary abilities.

For professional teacher communities, a total of 20 teachers formed a professional teacher community for innovative teaching, and four main topics were organized in 2019; 16 teachers participated in discussions on “student learning feedback and teaching methods,” 44 teachers participated in “how to divide students into groups in class,” 27 teachers participated in “inspiring students’ learning motivation,” and 24 teachers participated in “how to implement different assessment methods in class.”

From professional to interdisciplinary course planing, innovative teaching designs change the way students learn and improves their expertise. From research capabilities to teaching, teaching resources on campus and industry resources off campus are integrated to develop practical research and teaching in line with the educational goals and feature development requirements of vocational and technical schools. An example is given below:

Treatment strategy using amniotic stem cells for reproductive disorders in tropical breeds caused by heat stress

Heat stress of Holstein in tropical areas affects its reproduction, and lowers its pregnancy rate and lactation yield. Teachers provide students with instructions for advanced technologies in livestock production, animal economic circulation, and animal reproductive technology from a research perspective, and won awards in numerous competitions, showing the outstanding performance of students learning knowledge through research.

Name of competition	Award	Student name
Taiwan International Invention and Design Fair	Gold medal	Li Shang-Chieh, Hsueh Mu-Yu, Su Yang, Chen Chih-Liang
Ministry of Education Climate Change Creative Contest	Silver medal	Hsu Che-Wei, Su Yang, Hsueh Mu-Yu
The 9th International Innovative Entrepreneurial Competition	2nd place	Liu Kang-You, Gan Chia-Min, Su Yang, Mai Yung-Chi

1. Offering flexible credits

To encourage students to participate in speeches, master classes, events (including exhibitions, performances, practice, field surveys), experiments (internships, visits, off-site learning), workshops, and e-learning (distance, MOOCs, open courses), the University established the “Guidelines for Offering Flexible Credit Courses” to develop different types of courses to assist students with learning diverse practical and interdisciplinary knowledge.

Micro-courses help existing courses better meet the industry’s needs, while interdisciplinary micro-programs, interdisciplinary credit programs, and collaborative teaching with industry experts provide students with diverse opportunities for interdisciplinary learning through flexible credits, flexible teachers, flexible hours, and flexible locations.

2. Promotion of courses taught by multiple teachers

The “National Pingtung University of Science and Technology Notice on Applications for Interdisciplinary Courses Taught by Multiple Teachers,” was established to provide students with flexible and diverse learning channels, develop students’ interdisciplinary competitiveness, and promote interdisciplinary teaching innovation by multiple teachers. Courses taught by multiple teachers involve one main lecturer and up to two lecturers from different departments jointly offering a course, in which they are present throughout all weeks planned for the interdisciplinary course. The interdisciplinary integration and innovative contents designed for the course increases its richness.

3. Amendment to the Academic Regulations, relaxation of the system, and incentives for participation

Allowed elective credits (at least 6 credits) from other departments to be counted towards required graduation credits, and credits from courses of interdisciplinary micro-programs or interdisciplinary credit programs may also be counted towards students’ graduation credits. This increases the incentive for students to engage in interdisciplinary learning. The University also plans to accept applications for a second expertise in a different department starting in academic year 2019.

Goals and Strategies

Interdisciplinary learning results give students different ideas. The guidance provided by innovation and entrepreneurship courses will not only strengthen students learning motivation, but also inspire new methods other than conventional practices. The unlimited space for imagination requires integration or entrepreneurial guidance, and the University adopts an approach from a different aspect:

Changes in outcome

The Office for Innovation & Entrepreneurship was established in 2019, and coordinates innovation and entrepreneurship resources across units. The Office directly comes in contact with students and provides students with a direct communication and consultation channel. It co-organizes entrepreneurship courses and encourages students to participate in contests, in order to accumulate capital and practical experience to start their own business.

A total of 12 micro-school courses on innovation and entrepreneurship were offered for 284 students.

Hands-on, creative thinking, the spirit of makers, and entrepreneurship related knowledge and skills are applied to innovation and entrepreneurship courses, which allow students to learn innovative thinking and problem-solving abilities, and provide guidance for students to participate in on-campus and off-campus innovation and entrepreneurship contests.

Organization and participation in maker contests that emphasize innovation and creativity produce creative works or works with actual applications in each theme.

A total of 6 teams from the University participated in the Ministry of Education’s 2019 Hackathon with the theme sustainable urban and rural areas. The teams utilized Arduino and 3D printing for model simulation, applying what they learned in the IoT battle-ready course and basic course on 3D printing before the contest. Students from the Department of Business Administration also used it in their project study course in their department.
Six teams from the University were selected for the simulation and guidance before the National University of Technology Students’ Project Design Competition, in which 2 teams received 1st place, 1 team received 3rd place, and 1 team received an honorable mention.

Develop students’ potential according to their talent and adaptability, develop students’ IEP, allow students to take interdisciplinary micro-credit courses, develop students’ literacy in technology and industry, bridge the gap with the industry through internships and project study courses, and cultivate students with competitiveness in future technological development.

A total of 35 mentors served as course instructors in the 1st semester of academic year 2019.Courses are planned by the University’s teachers, and mentors are invited to teach practices in class, promoting industry-academia collaborative teaching based on company needs. The courses emphasize that they are taught by mentors, who provide practical training in the industry, design practical issues, contents of teaching materials, teaching strategies, and practice during and after class. This increases students motivation to learn practices, so that they can more quickly transition into the industry.

College of Professional Studies has 4 micro-schools, marketing and design, competency development, innovation and entrepreneurship, and industry empowerment. A total of 1,899 students took the 4 micro-schools and 40 master classes in the 1st semester of academic year 2019, and 1,553 students passed (as of December 2019).

Organized craftsman seminars and the Entrepreneurship Marketing Challenge, in which students were asked to make marketing proposals and film commercials for products developed by professors at the Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering. The series of courses provided training and was combined with a competition for students to apply what they learned, and promote specialty products developed by teachers at the University. Students’ works were displayed in the finals and awards ceremony.

Goals and Strategies

Logical thinking ability is an important foundation for career development, and computational ability connects digital technology to life. The combination of the two depict what life and work in the future will look like. The University not only adjusts courses and space, but also holds workshops for learning digital applications:

Computational thinking and logical are required courses of each college.
Programming tools with adjustable difficulty were purchased for students to learn different levels of programming methods, and use information technology for teaching professional courses.
Improve and establish an innovative programming space.
Specialty digital courses (contents include app development, IoT, AI, etc.)

Changes in outcome

Developing students’ logical thinking and programming abilities has become an international trend following changes in the global economic situation and business development, and the abilities are also important in the future workplace. The University began planning course contents in 2018.

Computational thinking and information technology application courses were offered for students from different departments to all have the opportunity to learn programming-related basic knowledge, skills, and attitude towards problem-solving. A total of 27 courses on computational thinking and information technology applications were offered in 2018 and 2019, and 1,149 students took the courses.

Three teaching modules from easy to hard were developed for course instructors to adjust course contents based on the department’s professional field. The modules are Cloud Professor for IoT, AppInventor2 for app development, and the programming language Python.

The University offered 10 and 17 courses on computational thinking and information technology application in 2018-2 and 2019-1, respectively. The courses originally had 10 teachers from the Department of Management Information Systems, and 6 more teachers joint in 2019-1 to jointly promote the courses, which aim to cultivate interdisciplinary IT talent. Students that took the courses all came from different departments, such as the Department of Fashion Design and Management, Department of Recreational Sport & Health Promotion, Department of Social Work, Department of Child Care, etc.; 428 students took the courses in 2018-2, and this number increased to 721 in 2019-1.

The University planned a “computer classroom” and “innovative teaching classroom” in the west part of the Information Building to implement programming related courses, strengthen students’ basic and professional programming abilities, allow students to become familiar with information system operations and actual applications, and meet the requirements of professional and specialty courses of each department. The computer classroom is designed with 60 seats; the classroom is long and narrow, so it is not suitable for the seats to face a single direction towards a lectern. Instead, the seats are divided into sections with the lectern placed at the center of the classroom. Multiple sets of projection equipment and broadcasting equipment are installed, allowing students to receive information at any part of the classroom, creating a learning space without any blind spots. The innovative teaching classroom is a multi-purpose space for creative thinking designed with 60 seats. The classroom is used to develop students’ creative thinking, logical reasoning, and interactive learning. The movable tables and chairs can be used for group discussions. The classroom has a multi-purpose learning system for teachers to simultaneously project the image on their monitor, so that student can rapidly understand operating procedures. Over 86 courses have been offered since the classroom was opened.

Goals and Strategies

Reading enriches the spirit and literacy, and getting into the habit of reading is the way to improve Chinese reading and writing abilities and achieve lifelong learning. The University improves students’ Chinese language abilities through Chinese language courses and library activities:

Changes in outcome

The Center’s Chinese language teaching team tested the Chinese language ability of all day school freshmen in the 1st semester of academic year 2018; the test was administered in the form of guided composition. The pre-test was administered in the fourth week after the 1st semester started, and students will be randomly selected to take the post-test in the fourth week before the end of the 2nd semester. The writing topics are lively and cause students to think diversely and creatively, and are also able to accurate test the Chinese language use, logical expression of creative thinking, and ability to organize the complete structure of an article in Chinese.

Besides continuing to promote reading, “writing” became the theme in the second semester of academic year 2018, and the “3rd Jingsi Lake Literary Award” and “appointment with writers” were organized. The reach of Chinese language teaching was extended through a fanpage, which linked literary learning with daily life. Continuing the “Southwind Reading Season” in the previous year, an e-book report contest, “appointment with writers,” and “movie discussions” were held in the 1st semester of academic year 2019 to improve students’ reading and writing abilities. The events were designed to let students extensively use book resources, and to improve their reading ability.

Goals and Strategies

Incorporate applications of professional English (foreign) language abilities required in the workplace into courses.
Develop professional English teaching materials to improve students’ foreign language proficiency.
Implement projects to encourage departments to offer professional English micro-courses, and compile teaching materials in coordination with English vocabulary specific to each field, so as to expand students’ vocabulary for professional knowledge.

Changes in outcome

To strengthen students’ professional English ability, micro-credit courses are encouraged with each department preparing English vocabulary and professional English teaching materials for the workplace. Professional foreign language test sheets provided by each department are used as testing tools. A pretest is administered for all freshmen each year, and students of departments that offer professional foreign language micro-courses are randomly selected to take the post-test, in order to assess students’ learning results.

Goals and Strategies

Researchers are hired for each professional field and requirement to conduct research and share the teaching load.
Hire full-time teachers and use the academic fund to hire teaching personnel (project-based teachers).
Revise related regulations to reward and encourage teachers to engage in teaching and service.

Changes in outcome

To support the Ministry of Education’s policy to reward exceptionally outstanding talent in universities, and reward the University’s teachers for incorporating innovation, social services, and other elements into their teaching work, the University’s categories of teachers with outstanding teaching performance include the following four categories:

Category A: Teachers with outstanding teaching performance

Category B: Outstanding teachers in innovative teaching

Category C: Teachers promoting university social responsibility

Category D: Teachers implementing the Higher Education SPROUT Project

To recruit and retain exceptionally outstanding talent, improve teachers at the University, and effectively improve the overall quality of teaching and academic achievements, flexible salary categories include research, teaching, guidance, and service.

Directions Governing Incentives for Teachers with Outstanding Teaching Performance
Implementation of the Directions Governing MOST Subsidies for Research Projects
Directions Governing Industry-Academia Research Subsidies
Directions Governing the Recruitment of Exceptionally Outstanding and Elite Talent
Directions Governing Incentives for Distinguished Professors with Extraordinary Contribution
Directions Governing Incentives for Outstanding Class Advisors
Directions Governing Incentives for Teachers with Outstanding Performance in Concurrently Held Functional Positions

The University began planning seminar series in 2019 and a total of 6 series were established, namely innovative teaching series, project sharing series, multimedia application series, teaching experience sharing series, English taught course series, and university social responsibility series. A total of 34 events were organized in 2019, and a total of 872 teachers participated; a teacher growth questionnaire survey was conducted at the end of 2019, and an annual growth seminar series was organized based on teachers’ needs.

The University will lower the student-teacher ratio and increase R&D capabilities through the hiring of additional research personnel. The Regulations for Appointment of Research Personnel was passed in the general meeting on December 25, 2017, and the Regulations for Research Personnel Evaluations was passed in the administrative meeting on May 16, 2019. Research personnel will assist in interdisciplinary teaching, and are also required to participate in industry-academia projects implemented by the University’s featured R&D teams when they are first hired, so that they can pass on their experience and contribute to their teaching. Research personnel are required to independently implement interdisciplinary industry-academia collaboration projects in the mid-term. The University will provide guidance and subsidies to encourage research personnel to engage in research on specialty topics. If research personnel achieve excellent performance, they will be reappointed as project-based and even full-time teachers in accordance with related regulations as a reward and incentive. The number of researchers reached 17 in 2018-2019.

To improve teaching and implement teacher evaluations, the tedious points system was changed to a threshold system. After two public hearings, the amendment to the Teacher Evaluation Regulations was passed in the general meeting, and the new system was implemented for evaluations of all full-time teachers in 2018.

To lift the burden of preparing evaluation documents on teachers, the Computer Center design the Teacher Evaluation System and linked it to the Base Database of Higher Technological and Vocational Education. The center held numerous sessions explaining teacher evaluations and operations of the online evaluation system, making teacher evaluations more convenient and simplifying the teacher evaluation process.

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Actively encouraged teachers to provide services to industries overseas. An example is Hu Shao-Yang at the Department of Biological Science and Technology visiting Tropical Ornamental Fish R&D Company established by Jy Lin Trading Co., Ltd. in Chiba, Japan for over 4 months of research. Main research contents include selective breeding of fluorescent genes and injection of embryos of different ornamental fish varieties, selection, identification, and breeding of new fluorescent ornamental fish varieties, breeding and feeding management of new fluorescent ornamental fish varieties, application for display of fluorescent ornamental fish , and design and management of aquarium. He established a total of 10 fluorescent ornamental fish varieties during the research period, and transferred four fish varieties with the brightest green color to the company. He also completed the signing of an industry-academia collaboration project and offered two courses, combining contents of his research with course contents; three senior executives were invited to participate in the courses, in order to improve students practical skills for ornamental fish development. The industry-academia collaboration allowed students to understand industrial development trends through the participation in practical projects, and overseas internships established collaboration channels, providing students with overseas internship opportunities that will improve their practical skills and enhance their employability.
Associate Professor Yang Cheng-Jung at the Department of Mechanical Engineering engaged in practical study at Become Sustainable in Germany. The company mainly develops technologies and tools for manufacturing, smart manufacturing, energy, and resource efficiency, which are applied in research or teaching. He set out from the perspective of learning factory (LF) to establish a practical system that can link together teaching with corporate project requirements, and provided teachers and students with knowledge on the process of learning about industrial systems through doing from the perspective of problem-solving. Results of the study include introducing 2 PBL modules in class, contents include combining Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and LF in the design of mechanical systems, which derived two practical teaching materials on PBL modules and 2 practical topics. A total of 90 people learned these two modules in 2019, and 1 conference paper was jointly published with the German company. Practical courses on improving the performance of 3D printers and connection to Industry 4.0 will be planned based on the example above, allowing teachers and students to share the benefits of the study.

Each department plans courses based on its characteristics and educational goals, and hires full-time and part-time teachers with an expertise in the field. Departments also submit applications for experienced industry mentors to participate in teaching and improve students’ practical understanding. Number of part-time teachers and mentors. In addition to the professional growth of teachers, the University also focuses on collaborative teaching by industry mentors, so that teachers and students will be more in touch with the industry. In the appointment of industry mentors, besides cooperating with the Phase 2 Technical and Vocational Redevelopment Project, the University also utilizes its academic fund for more courses to involve industry mentors in teaching and experience sharing. On average over 300 industry mentors participate in the University’s teaching each year, which shows that industry collaborative teaching is being stably implemented to achieve the “alignment of theory and practice.”

Goals and Strategies

Offered professional certification courses to guide students to obtain professional certifications
Organize different types of industry exploration and study to improve students’ understanding of and interest in the industry
Analyze different competencies and occupations to help students their own attributes

Changes in outcome

The list of certifications issued, commissioned, certified, or recognized by each central competent authority for the target industry, which was announced by the Ministry of Education, was provided for departments accurately determine their core certifications. In the list of certifications that are recognized to improve employability, besides basic certifications, students are also encouraged to obtain higher level certifications, emerging interdisciplinary certifications, and the iPAS industry talent evaluation. This will help students not only gain professional competencies, but also build their own brand from their professionalism demonstrated in their resume. Students achieve mastery of the knowledge they learn in class through the certifications, and internalize the knowledge into their individual capabilities.

Organized craftsman seminars and the Entrepreneurship Marketing Challenge in the first half of 2019, in which students were asked to make marketing proposals and film commercials for products developed by professors at the Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering. The series of courses provided training and was combined with a competition for students to apply what they learned, and promote specialty products developed by teachers at the University. Students’ works were displayed in the finals and awards ceremony.

The Office of Career Development won the bronze award in the school division of the 2019 University Career Guidance Evaluation. Furthermore, the University has provided additional personnel to actively train personnel to obtain certifications, in order to strengthen career guidance related work. This year 3 more people obtained the CPAS certification, and a total of 8 faculty and staff have obtained the CPAS certification, in which 50% of personnel at the Office of Career Development has the certificate. Personnel at the Office of Career Development also participated in the iPAS color planner training, and 3 people obtained the iPAS color planner (color plan) certification and 2 people obtained the iPAS color planner (color engineering) certification.

Professional competency seminar courses were included in College of Professional Studies in the 1st semester of academic year 2019, and a total of 12 micro-credit courses were offered in “marketing and design micro-school” and “competency development micro-school.” First, marketing and design micro-school mainly aims to develop students’ marketing ability using information technology tools to produce digital content, and hopes that students with the expertise of their respective departments can learn interdisciplinary marketing skills, as well as successfully use marketing concepts for product planning and promotion. Second, the competency development micro-school mainly aims to develop students’ general competencies, and hopes that students will have communication, expression, continued learning, interpersonal interaction, teamwork, problem-solving, innovation, responsibility and discipline, and information technology application abilities before entering the workplace. The micro-school aims to develop students’ soft power, so that they can adapt to the workplace that changes with the times.

The UCAN platform was used to understand the current status of students’ professional competencies and abilities required in the workplace. A series of courses and events was organized based on students’ weaknesses and professional competencies needed by the industry, and helps students better understand their abilities and develop their employability while in school or after class.

Develop University Features

Description of implementation and highlights

“New agriculture” is a part of the government’s “5+2” Industrial Innovation Plan, and responds to the outflow and aging of agricultural labor, high production cost, and decline in the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s agriculture. New agriculture involves more innovation and R&D, and utilizes biotechnology, sensor technology, smart machinery, cloud technology, big data analysis, and IoT applications to make agricultural production and marketing smarter, which will increase the overall output value of agriculture. Therefore, “new agriculture” is not only one of the “5+2” innovative industries, but also an interdisciplinary industry that involves green energy technology, smart machinery, and biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. “New agriculture” also has local features, and an industrial cluster for innovative R&D can be developed utilizing local advantages and development conditions, so as to resolve various problems and make improvement in related indicators. Indicators corresponding to each measure are shown in the table below:

The University’s approach and corresponding KPI	Establish interdisciplinary teams for development themes, and develop new agricultural technologies to enhance teachers and students’ professional and practical abilities	Strengthen industry-academia connections and talent cultivation	Increase international visibility and influence	Correspond to the “5+2” Industrial Innovation Plan
Form interdisciplinary research teams to strengthen the capabilities of industry, academia, and research institutes	v	v		v
Hire research personnel to assist teachers with research and further application in teaching	v	v		v
Encourage senior teachers to share their experience with new teachers	v	v		v
Encourage new teachers to participate in industry-academia collaboration	v	v		v
Encourage teachers to commercialize their patents/technologies	v			v
Encourage teachers to lead students in intercollegiate collaboration and industry-academia collaboration	v	v		v
Establish College of Professional Studies industry empowerment micro-school		v		v
Encourage teachers to engage in joint research or teaching with foreign schools	v	v	v	v
Encourage teachers to implement international industry-academia collaboration projects	v		v
Promote sustainable campus and participate in the green university rating			v

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

Goals and Strategies

Establish an interdisciplinary research team subsidy system, review and revise the system using the PDCA model in coordination with the University's four major development themes, encourage teachers to establish cross-college, cross-department professional research teams, which will elevate overall research and service capabilities, and take the initiative based on needs learned through the industry-academia service team, so as to create collaboration opportunities between industry, government, academia, and research institutes.
Encourage cross-college, cross-department teacher team to be formed to implement interdisciplinary research projects, have senior teachers mentor new teachers, engage in technological development and teaching under the four major development themes, and generate patents and proceeds from technology transfer.
Two projects were implemented to strengthen cooperation between teachers and companies and commercialize patents and technologies, including the (Patent) Technology Commercialization Project and Project to Encourage Teachers to Establish Inter-collegiate Research Teams.

Changes in outcome

The Directions Governing Applications for Interdisciplinary Research Teams Under the Higher Education Sprout Project was established in 2018, involving even more innovation and R&D, and utilizing biotechnology, sensor technology, smart machinery, cloud technology, big data analysis, and IoT applications to make agricultural production and marketing smarter, which will increase the overall output value of agriculture.
In 2018-2019, 775 teachers implemented industry-academia collaboration projects with a total budget of NT$370 million, applied for 62 patents, and received NT$19 million in proceeds for technology transfer. The average funding per teacher increased from NT$930,000 before 2018 to NT$1,130,000.
A total of 9 new teachers were hired in the past 5 years, and the amount of industry-academia collaboration projects increased from NT$3,240,000 in 2018 to NT$8,070,000 in 2019.
Encouraging teachers to commercialize patents and technologies increased the average of 9 cases before 2018 to 14 cases.
R&D technologies are incorporated in courses and extended to teaching, offering courses each year; a total of 22 practical courses were offered in 2019.
New teachers are encouraged to participate in the Higher Education Sprout Project, and the number of new teachers increased from 10 in 2018 to 18 in 2019.

Goals and Strategies

The University formed a strategic alliance with nearby universities of science and technology in guiding high (vocational) schools after implementing the Exemplary University of Science and Technology Project. To fulfill the University's obligation to partner schools, the Project to Encourage Teachers to Establish Inter-collegiate Research Teams was implemented, and R&D teams were formed to jointly implement industry-academia collaboration projects with technical and vocational universities and high (vocational) schools in nearby areas. The execution of interdisciplinary and intercollegiate strategies has enhanced the University's overall research capabilities and extended it to nearby schools and industries.
College of Professional Studies was established in the 1st semester of academic year 2019, and the Office of Career Development plans to offer a variety of courses for professional and general competencies required by industries based on the core concept of PDCA. The Office surveyed students to understand their learning results, course satisfaction, and subjects they would like to learn in the future, and used survey results as the basis for making rolling adjustments to courses offered.

Changes in outcome

Six schools and seven companies formed seven teams to execute intercollegiate collaboration projects in 2018, and led 47 students and nine students from other universities to strengthen their practical abilities by working with the industry. This led to industry-academia collaboration projects in the amount of NT$1,210,000.
Nine schools and 11 companies formed 11 teams to execute intercollegiate collaboration projects in 2019, and led 52 students and 95 students from other universities to strengthen their practical abilities by working with the industry. This led to industry-academia collaboration projects in the amount of NT$1,600,000.
Example: Guidance process

Assessment of improvements

Goals and Strategies

Implement the International Research Pilot Program to continue expanding academic exchanges with schools in the UNTA and sister schools, and form international teacher teams to lead students in conducting academic research.
Increase efforts in New Southbound countries, organize creative thinking workshops, language and cultural exchange events and support classes, and provide guidance to students for overseas internships, contests, study, and short-term exchange.
The “Directions Governing Subsidies for International Academic Activities and Technical Exchange” was established in 2018 to encourage teachers to actively participate in international academic activities. International academic activities are subsidized to strengthen international technical exchanges, strengthen the connection between research results and international markets, and create more opportunities for international industry-academia collaboration.
Participate in the green university rating to draw attention to sustainable environment and university social responsibility.

Changes in outcome

Implementation of the International Research Pilot Program: In 2018-2019, 29 teachers led 27 students in assisting 45 international teachers and students from the University Network for Tropical Agriculture (UNTA) to engage in exchanges at the University.
Signed a R&D industry-academia collaboration project related to farm water conservation with KLK in Malaysia, subsidized 4 students for off-campus internships in Malaysia, 3 students for academic exchanges in the University of Hong Kong, and provided guidance to 4 foreign students to participate in a trial at Taitung Guanshan Experimental Field.
Offered the “International Program in Ornamental Fish Technology and Aquatic Animal Health” and “International Program in Animal Vaccine Technology,” and invited renowned aquatic animal researchers from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Japan, as well as animal vaccine development experts to teach for a short period of time at the University, thereby cultivating diverse international professional talent.
Promotion of international industry-academia collaboration:

Signed an international strategic alliance and matched 2 international technology transfer cases in 2018; 13 teachers engaged in international cooperation and exchanges and published 15 R&D results in Thailand.
Organized an agriculture, forestry, fishery, and animal husbandry exhibition in March 2019, as well as an education promotion event for 30 R&D results of 19 teachers. At present, 2 international strategic alliances and 4 industry-academia collaboration projects have been signed, allowing academic research to generate synergistic effects and create value through industrial applications.
The amount of international industry-academia collaboration reached NT$15 million or above in 2019.
Gaining international recognition for actively promoting sustainable campus: Achieved excellent performance in the GreenMetric World University Ranking in 2016-2018 (37th in the world and 5th in Asia), and ranked 1st in Taiwan for five consecutive years, while maintaining in the top 10% of the world. In particular, the University achieved excellent performance in campus infrastructure, water recycling, transportation, and environmental education.

Promote Publicness in Higher Education

Description of implementation and highlights

Guidance and subsidies for students in a poor economic or cultural situation

Key points of providing guidance to students in a poor economic or cultural situation is to improve they interdisciplinary abilities, employability, and international abilities. Strategies include: Encourage and provide guidance to students in a poor economic or cultural situation to participate in the project’s “Implement teaching innovation and improve teaching quality” and “Develop university features”; give priority or more subsidies to interdisciplinary teaching and research projects that provide guidance to students in a poor economic or cultural situation.

Concrete measures are as follows:

Disclosure of school information and improvement of management abilities

The University complies with the disclosure of 35 items of school information, and discloses the information according to schedule each year, including basic data and trends such as school information description, number of students, and student-teacher ratio, financial information analysis, tuition and miscellaneous fees and financial assistance information, other important school information, and implementation of internal control and internal audit. School information required by the ministry were disclosed in 2018, and information on graduates, school evaluation results and school mechanisms, and enrollment rate will be disclosed starting in 2019, adding IR analysis results each year until 40 items are disclosed in 2021.

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Each department provides an admission quota of 20 students to the Joint Admission Commission for Students with Disabilities.
To lift the economic burden on students from low income and middle-low income households, registration fees are waived for qualified examinees; for student recruitment examinations independently held by graduate institutes, in addition to waiving registration fees, transportation and accommodation subsidies are also provided.
The emergency relief grant, tuition and miscellaneous fee waiver for students from low income households, and preferential dormitory fees under the University’s assistance plan for underprivileged college students is promoted in the admission prospectus.
Starting in academic year 2018, the University began supporting the student admission channel for middle-low income households in the Ministry of Education's four-year technical program admission by recommendation and screening. According to regulations, the admission quota of national universities is 2% of the quota approved by the Ministry of Education. The University has a quota of 30 students, and each channel provided a quota of 29 students from middle-low income households in academic year 2019-2020, increasing the admission opportunities of students in poor economic situations.

Goals and Strategies

Give priority to students in poor economic or cultural situations to participate in courses of featured teaching teams or interdisciplinary research projects, in order to enhance their interdisciplinary abilities.
Give students in poor economic or cultural situations priority for teaching assistant positions. Teaching assistant training courses not only train basic abilities, but also include digital logical thinking courses, which will enhance the logical thinking ability of students in poor economic or cultural situations.
Establish the policy to send students in poor economic and cultural situations overseas for study, and select outstanding students through the Higher Education Sprout Project, in order to enhance the competitiveness of students in poor economic and cultural situations.
Increase the number of underprivileged students participating in featured interdisciplinary courses (participate in interdisciplinary teaching courses/participate in interdisciplinary research projects)
Provide guidance to students in poor economic or cultural situations based on the case management database
Provide students in poor economic situations with access to resources of teaching, internship, career and employment guidance units through the dual mentor system, which consists of class advisors in departments and guidance units, and the professional mentor system.
Complete application and subsidy regulations are established as the basis for implementing different scholarships; Regulations for the Establishment of Scholarship Review Committees were also established.
Plan study groups for professional courses of each department/institute/program, arrange 1 teacher to serve as the teacher-counselor, and select 3 juniors or seniors in poor economic or cultural situations with excellent academic performance to serve as counselors, providing freshmen and sophomores in poor economic or cultural situations who are also taking the courses with guidance after class.

Changes in outcome

Wei Fang-I, a student at the Department of Fashion Design and Management who is from a low income household, won numerous domestic and overseas awards during her four years of study. She was recommended for the President Educational Award in academic year 2018, and received the award in 2019.
Provided interdisciplinary guidance team services. The full-time student counseling team has 2 counseling psychologists, 2 clinical psychologists (one of which is able to provide counseling services in English), and 5 social workers. One part-time psychiatrist, 2 part-time clinical psychologists, and 1 part-time counseling psychologist (able to provide counseling services in English) were also hired. Services are provided by 13 full-time and part-time counseling personnel with expertise in gender equality, domestic violence, long-term care, healthcare, and disabilities.

Assessment of improvements

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

The University complies with the disclosure of 35 items of school information, and discloses the information according to schedule each year, including basic data and trends such as school information description, number of students, and student-teacher ratio, financial information analysis, tuition and miscellaneous fees and financial assistance information, other important school information, and implementation of internal control and internal audit. Disclosures of information on graduates and enrollment rate were added in 2019, increasing the number of items disclosed to 37.

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Revised seven regulations governing the implementation of flexible teacher salaries, including teaching incentives, research incentives, and service incentives, which are implemented by the Office of Academic Affairs, Office of Research and Development, Office of Student Affairs, and Personnel Office.
Organized workshops on teacher promotions, during which teachers shared their successful promotion experience, teacher teaching innovation contests, teaching practice seminars, teacher promotion meetings, teacher evaluation meetings, and promoted teacher communities for promotions. “NPUST Promotion” is a platform established for discussing promotion information, where teachers can share and discuss promotion information and achieve mutual growth.
Organized teacher growth camps and offered a series of seminars based on teachers’ needs. In 2018-2019, 11 teachers with excellent teaching performance were invited to share their teaching experience, and 368 teachers participated.

Assessment of improvements

Goals and Strategies

Adopt a top-down approach to formulating topics, understanding trends and crucial weaknesses, and then provide feedback to related units for improvement.
Establish an Exlead database platform to integrate and link together databases of each department and office. Dedicated organizations and accountability.
Focus on the big picture of intercollegiate and intramural issues.
Conduct questionnaire surveys of employers and students to discuss issues from students and employers’ perspective.

Changes in outcome

23 sub-issues for intercollegiate evaluation of school performance. Planned 28 sub-issues for student learning performance. Key results of IR are described in chapter 2 of this report. Determined key areas of weakness in learning results based on IR results, formulated 7 core issues for improving students’ learning results, and planned 18 projects for implementation under the Higher Education Sprout Project.
IR benefits the improvement of teaching results and provides feedback for student recruitment. In the case of the Department of Mechanical Engineering master’s program, enrollment rate was only 50% in academic year 2017. However, the master's program’s enrollment rate was 100% in 2018 due to the establishment of the robotic arm classroom and robotic arm micro-course.
IR analysis of the PR value among students in poor economic or cultural situations in academic years 2014-2018 found that many of the students received excellent grades, but there were also those who needed learning guidance. The study groups have teacher-counselors lead underprivileged students with excellent grades to serve as counselors, and provide guidance to underprivileged students and general students. This greatly helped students in poor economic or cultural situations. Two underprivileged students in the Department of Industrial Management significantly improved their grades after receiving guidance, and ranked 1st and 4th in the course. Improved attitude towards learning: Students who received guidance said that they were no longer alone in learning, and gained good learning partners to work together with. After their grades improved, other students would ask them questions, and their role changed from “learning” to “teaching,” which allowed them to discover that helping others is a positive and happy thing to do.

Goals and Strategies

Establish a graduate destination tracking mechanism and process to collect information on the career destination of graduating students from the entire University and each department.
Periodically hold a graduating student survey meeting each semester to provide information on the employment, further education, and military service of graduating students in each department, as well as information on their salaries, employment satisfaction, and alignment of education with employment.

Changes in outcome

A graduate destination survey is conducted every March and October, and the graduate destination survey of graduating students (2,733) in academic year 2018 was completed in October 2019, in which results are further education (13.10%), employment (47.49%), military service (16.70%), study abroad (0.04%), other (14.27%), and unemployed (8.93%); salaries (university-wide NT$32,953, undergraduate NT$29,152, master’s NT$43,244, Ph.D NT$62,222); employment satisfaction 97.8%; alignment of education and employment 75.4%.
The career destination of graduates 1, 3, and 5 years after graduation is surveyed every June-November. A survey was completed in November 2019, and the response rate from the class of 2017 one year after graduation was 88%; the response rate from the class of 2015 three years after graduation was 92.70%; the response rate from the class of 2013 five years after graduation was 78.97%.
Weaknesses of the university's graduates were determined based on survey results, and College of Professional Studies thus offered the marketing and design and competency development micro-schools to strengthen students’ weakest abilities.

Assessment of improvements

Each department/institute/program appoints teachers to serve as career mentors, and provide professional and career guidance.
Career mentors who obtain qualifications through training provided by the Office of Career Development provide students with career orientation analysis and clarification via stationary and walking career guidance events. The career mentors also develop students’ competencies through course activities.

Fulfill Social Responsibilities

Description of implementation and highlights

The USR Project is implemented by teachers leading students or clubs and student associations of each department/institute. A total of 27 projects were implemented by 16 departments in 2018 and 2019; 663 students achieved excellent performance in providing social services to 21,103 people. The students provided services in communities together with the Yunus Social Business Center, and incorporated the concept of USR into featured teaching and research projects, encouraging teachers to lead students in applying their knowledge to help communities or elementary schools in remote areas, taking action to provide social services. Students have used many different ways of utilizing their expertise in providing social services, such as: using horticulture to help the elderly heal, developing agricultural communities, teaching elementary school students innovative technologies (drones, robots, etc.), smart long-term care (eldelry muscle strength examination), rural campus plant health examination, keeping the elderly company, guiding agricultural services, and caring for stray animals. Providing services to local communities allows students to accumulate practical experience in their professional field, achieves innovative developments in different aspects of community care, and further vitalizes community culture and fulfills USR:

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

To let teachers and students understand the importance of USR, and also cultivate talent based on the needs of various projects, the University organized 5 empowerment events and three project results sharing sessions in 2018 and 2019 (as shown in Table 12). These events aim to increase teachers’ recognition of and intention to participate in USR, and also allow students to understand the value of university social practices.

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Implemented numerous USR projects and established the Yunus Social Business Center to strengthen the connection between the the University and region (e.g., communities, long-term care facilities, orphanages, associations, junior high schools, and elementary schools). Teachers lead students from different departments/institutes or clubs, and use their knowledge to provide company, assistance, or learning services to communities or elementary schools in remote areas, thereby fulfilling USR. Workshops are organized in high (vocational) schools, and USR concepts are incorporated in projects for teaching and developing university features, promoting USR in different aspects. USR concepts are incorporated in projects for teaching innovation and developing university features, promoting USR in different aspects. An example is given below.

Campus tree health examination services provided by plant doctors

The campuses of many elementary schools in rural areas of Pingtung County have issues with tree and plant diseases and pests, but have no one to go to. The student association of the Department Forestry called together teachers and students with an expertise in landscape, forestry, and plant medicine to form the “Pingtung County Elementary Scool Campus Tree Health Examination Service Team.” The team has completed campus tree health examinations for 13 elementary schools, and instructed a total of 1,598 teachers and students from each school to carry out simple tree health examinations. Services were provided to Taian, Dongshi, Fengtian, Ronghua, Dongning, Jiayi, Beiyeh, and Shengli. The university’s students assisted elementary school campuses with plant disease and pest issues, alleviating the shortage of human and material resources faced by most schools in rural areas, and thus received the gratitude and support of elementary schools. Different departments/institutes worked together for professional exchanges, experience sharing, and interdisciplinary integration. Students who participated in this project made significant improvement to their own professional skills and identification with their work. Many companies have made the request for students to become interns at their company.

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Implemented USR projects for local communities to continue their development and production, encourage the youth to return to their hometown and for students to start their own business and become rooted in Pingtung. Description:

The team that implemented “Wasp Network, Return of the Youth” combined the expertise of teachers in food science, horticultural production, and animal science with the traditional wisdom of tribes to develop a new under-forest economic model, providing assistance in the agricultural production, processing, and sales process in tribes. A bee farm and mushroom farm were established on campus as practice sites with subsidies from the University, and are used by students and tribe members for practical learning. This has made industrial development in tribes more stable, promoted under-forest economy and eco-travel, so that the tribes are able to sustain basic living requirements when they are cut off from the outside world due to typhoons and other extreme weather, improving their post-disaster recovery ability.

While accompanying tribes: Graduating students established Leshan Eco Co., Ltd. and Okyama Studio starting in 2012, and accompanied tribes in the development of eco-travel, jointly finding startup opportunities with tribal youth. Guidance was provided for tribal youth to become involved in community industries, and serve suitable roles in independent operations based on their expertise. This allowed the youth to gain a greater sense of achievement, while emphasizing the importance of conservation and industry sustainability, showing the value of natural ecology conservation in the development of travel. The e-commerce company “PingtungLife” was founded in 2016 to promote local specialties and eco-travel packages of Pingtung. Okuyama Studio was established in 2015 and encourages students to start businesses in Pingtung. Guidance was provided to tribe members to establish “Pingtung County Shanchuan Glass Suspension Bridge Indigenous Travel Service Cooperative Limited” in 2017, and the eco-travel community of Provincial Highway 26 jointly established “Pingtung County Eco-Travel Joint Development Association.”

2019 achievements

Implement innovation in higher education and improve teaching quality

Description of implementation and highlights

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

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Develop University Features

Description of implementation and highlights

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Assessment of improvements

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Promote Publicness in Higher Education

Description of implementation and highlights

Guidance and subsidies for students in a poor economic or cultural situation

Disclosure of school information and improvement of management abilities

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

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Assessment of improvements

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Assessment of improvements

Fulfill Social Responsibilities

Description of implementation and highlights

Goals, strategies, and changes in outcomes

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

Goals and Strategies

Changes in outcome

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