2020 achievements
Implement innovation in higher education and improve teaching quality
- Indicators 1: Improvement of students’ professional and practical technical abilities
Goals and Strategies
<Alignment of theory and practice – Spirit of craftsman>
Intelligent agricultural control system and application
Practical production of marketing communication planning
License training for argon tungsten welding technicians
UVA Teaching
Multifunctional sports professional classroom
Development of valuable instrument teaching software
Tea Industry Practice Enhancing Course
AR/VR teaching materials application
Grass-fed livestock breeding and management practice course
Programming educational robot production
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:
- Interdisciplinary micro-programs (20), interdisciplinary credit programs (5), innovative teaching and PBL courses (41), digital courses on professional and practical technologies (1), Second Expertise(1), and on-site professional and practical workshop courses (4)
- Offer certification courses to help students obtain certificates, developing their professional competencies and closing the gap between learning and practice.
- Establish 6 types of projects to comprehensively improve students’ practical technical abilities.
- Produce videos & AR/VR 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.
- Indicator 2: Improvement in teacher's innovative teaching results
Goals and Strategies
<Teaching innovation – Flipped classroom>
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.
- Indicator 3: Effectiveness in improving students' interdisciplinary learning ability
Goals and Strategies
<Interdisciplinary learning – Diverse perspectives>
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.
- Indicator 4: Offering innovation and entrepreneurship courses and students’ learning results
Goals and Strategies
<Innovation and creativity -Unlimited imagination>
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:
- Establish and provide access to innovation and entrepreneurship mechanisms, sites, and platforms.
- Encourage and provide guidance to students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship contests.
- Established College of Professional Studies and offered credit seminar courses.
- Indicator 5: Improvement in students’ computational thinking and programming abilities
Goals and Strategies
<Computational logic – Connect to the future>
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.)
- Indicator 6: Improvement in students’ Chinese reading and writing abilities
Goals and Strategies
<Humanistic literacy – Lifelong learning>
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:
- Enhanced “guided composition” in required Chinese language courses (reading and writing)
- Organized a series of reading, seminars, art participation, and literary creation events to reward and encourage students to maintain the habit of reading.
- Indicator 7: Improvement of students’ professional (workplace) foreign language proficiency
Goals and Strategies
<Professional language ability – Deciphering the world>
- 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.
- Indicator 8: Improvement in the quality and quantity of teachers and the student-teacher ratio
Goals and Strategies
<Teacher improvement – Equal emphasis on teaching and research>
- 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.
- Indicator 9: Increase in practical experience of full-time teachers
Goals and Strategies
- Encourage teachers to engage in industry-academia collaboration, become more involved in the industry, or collaborate with industry mentors in teaching.
- Indicator 10: Increase in ratio of graduates that enter the workplace
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
Develop university features
- Indicator 1: Establish interdisciplinary teams for four major development themes, and develop new agricultural technologies to enhance teachers and students’ professional and practical abilities
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.
- Indicator 2: Results of strengthening industry-academia connections and talent cultivation
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.
- Indicator 3: Increase in international visibility and influence
Goals and Strategies
Rankings | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
National ranking | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Asian ranking | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
World ranking | 32 | 35 | 37 | 60 | 44 | 37 | 31 |
Participating countries / Universities | 62/361 | 66/407 | 74/516 | 76/619 | 81/719 | 85/780 | 84/912 |
- 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.
Promote publicness in higher education
- Indicator 1: Increase in ratio of students in a poor economic or cultural situation enrolled in a national university of science and technology
Goals and Strategies
- Increase the ratio of outstanding underprivileged students who enroll in the University each year through bonus points or guaranteed quota.
- Indicator 2: Increase in the ratio of students in poor economic or cultural situations who receive guidance or assistance, enhance the competitiveness of students in poor economic or cultural situations, provide better guidance for students in poor economic or cultural situations, and provide a school environment where they can feel at ease
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.
- Indicator 3: Fulfill the responsibility of publicness of education, improve school governance and teachers and students’ rights protection, establish a school information disclosure system, and increase disclosures of school information each year
Goals and Strategies
- After increasing IR analysis results each year, disclose more school information.
Changes in outcome
- Indicator 4: Complete teaching support system for teachers
Goals and Strategies
- The University's interdisciplinary centers and teaching resource centers summarize regulations to establish new regulations or revise current regulations.
- Promote the teaching support system in coordination with projects to encourage teachers to properly utilize resources.
- Indicator 5: Establish a professional management system for institutional research (IR), and provide feedback for student recruitment and improvement of teaching results
Goals and Strategies
<Find the key Feedback and improvement>
- 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.
- Indicator 6: Establish a graduate destination tracking mechanism and provide feedback to improve teaching results
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.
Fulfill USR
- Indicator 1: Improvement in results of teachers and students using their expertise in exchanges and social services provided to nearby communities, institutions, and schools in rural areas
Goals and Strategies
<Deeper identification – Realizing value>
- Organize USR seminars and engage in USR promotion and education.
- Indicator 2: Growth of teachers in nearby areas with respect to teaching
Goals and Strategies
<Professional learning – Serving society>
- Establish USR projects to encourage teachers and students to use their professional knowledge to serve nearby communities or organizations.
- Indicator 3: Drive regional industrial development, help the youth return to their hometown, and retain outstanding talent
Goals and Strategies
<Professional learning – Serving society>
- Local empowerment and talent retention
- Integrate resources of internal units, and combine it with resources of local tribes, government, academia, and industry
- Guide graduating students to stay in the region and start their own business, accompany and guide tribal youth to engage in community industries