With a large number of universities sharing limited educational resources in Taiwan, every local university that aspires to become a comprehensive research university is short of the resources, diversified faculty and facilities required to raise its competitiveness, making it difficult to catch up with the top world-class universities in terms of research capabilities and academic influence.
Responding to this phenomenon in higher education, Taiwan saw the establishment of The University System of Taiwan (UST) in 2008 as its first research-led university alliance composed of National Central University, National Yang Ming University, National Tsing Hua University and National Chao Tung University. The formation of UST resulted primarily from these institutions’ complementary academic disciplines, structural compatibilities and regional proximity, making it possible to integrate various higher education resources in northern and central Taiwan.
In 2011, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, four major landmark universities in central and southern Taiwan—National Cheng Kung University, National Sun Yat-sen University, National Chung Hsing University and National Chung Cheng University—were integrated into the Taiwan Comprehensive University System (TCUS), based on their existing organizational and administrative structures. The formation of TCUS was intended to enable its members to make optimal use of their existing educational resources, as well as to balance the differences in the availability of these between central-southern and northern Taiwan, in the hope of working out a new blueprint for the further development of higher education. TCUS aims to promote academic collaborations with all levels of industry to pave the way for the development of a green technology zone along the west coast of Taiwan, and become a driving force for the development of the hi-tech economy in central-southern Taiwan.
The Integration of TCUS
On Nov. 5, 2011, following the establishment of TCUS, Academia Sinica Academician Paul Ching-Wu Chu, an international superconductivity pioneer and former president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), was appointed as the founding President of the organization, to help lead the four universities to integrate their resources and strengths. These efforts were carried out with the aim of fulfilling various collaborations and exchanges with regard to academic research and development, library resource utilization, international affairs, research in the humanities and social sciences, academia-industrial intellectual property rights, and sustainable management.
Since the founding of TCUS, a total of eight working circles have been organized, with integrated administrative resources from the four members to administer activities related to academic affairs, student affairs, research and development, general affairs, secretarial affairs, international affairs, information security and library affairs. These circles have been working among the four universities to enable the related staff and resources to complement each other and facilitate their cooperation, resulting in substantial achievements in a broad range of areas over a short period of time. Some of these are detailed, below.
International Affairs:
TCUS has established a preparatory office for the Global College Program as a platform to facilitate the integration of foreign-language educational resources and the management of related information in pursuit of further international cooperation and exchanges. Meanwhile, in 2013 TCUS started to construct a Chinese-English database of the laws and regulations that apply to the four universities, in order to raise the effectiveness of resource sharing.
Academic Affairs:
TCUS has undertaken several measures in its administration of academic affairs. First of all, it takes advantage of a distance-learning system to support its intercollegiate curriculum in the disciplines of life sciences, physics and social sciences. Secondly, it has organized a series of lectures on General Education by faculty from its member universities on a rotation basis. Thirdly, it has held various conferences for faculty members within and beyond the TCUS in central and southern Taiwan to integrate their teaching resources and present the achievements that have accrued from resource sharing. In addition, since 2013 TCUS has established a joint mechanism for the admission of outstanding athletes into undergraduate programs based on shared academic resources.
Student Affairs:
In addition to the ZHCW Sports Event held annually for students from the four universities, TSUC has worked to promote student health through the integration of health manpower and medical resources, as well as the establishment of courses and learning passports on health management by NCKU’s Medical College.
Library Resources:
The four universities have launched a joint project for the purchase of shared electronic books, saving 42% of their annual budget allocated for the procurement of library resources. An online learning platform has also been constructed to enable the four universities to cultivate talents in this new format, and for their librarians to share educational resources.
Research and Development
TCUS has made a number of major achievements in the dimension of research and development, as follows:
- TCUS has established a mechanism for the election of outstanding young scholars for innovative research, aimed to encourage young faculty members to undertake innovative work in a variety of areas. A total of 16 such scholars have been elected from the disciplines of natural science, biotechnology, the humanities and social sciences. They serve as pilot researchers for the development of the Innovative Researcher Incubation Center.
- TCUS has constructed an online joint faculty database in terms of academic specialty, paper publication and research achievement to facilitate the formation or development of new research projects.
- The four universities have also constructed a platform for the management of shared instruments and facilities.
- Other achievements of TSCU in research and development include the establishment of an integrated legal counseling service system; the integration of faculty members and talents specializing in information security and personal information protection, which has successfully promoted information security, facilitated information-control services, and minimized the risk of information leaks; and the joint composition of a Whitepaper for Sustainable Development of TCUS and Declaration of Sustainable Development of TCUS, with the establishment of indicators for the sustainable development of TCUS.
According to administrative statistics, as of the end of 2012 TCUS had managed to complete a great number of events, including the implementation of 49 subprojects, seven meetings of the Executive Committee, two coordinating meetings of the TCUS President and Executive Committee, two coordinating meetings of the Executive Committee and Administrative Working Circles, six meetings of the Academic Affairs Working Circles, eight meetings of the Student Affairs Working Circle, seven meetings of the Research and Development Working Circle, five meetings of the International Affairs Working Circle, two meetings of the General Affairs Working Circle, five meetings of the Information Security Working Circle, two professional workshops for new teachers, one exhibition featuring achievements in information security, one conference analyzing the Personal Data Protection Act and related countermeasures, two experience-sharing workshops for the International Affairs Working Circle, an international student orientation, an online public relations campaign, one summer camp for energy saving and carbon reduction, the annual ZHCW sports event, and a press conference for the inauguration of the TUCS President on November 5, 2012.
Meanwhile, TUCS has integrated a total of eight research centers, including the Energy Technology Research Center, Foresight Material Technology Research Center, Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Center, Center of Infectious Disease and Signaling Research, Asia-Pacific Ocean Research Center, Electronic Commerce and Internet Society Research Center, Biotechnology Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, and Advanced Institute of Manufacturing with High-Tech Innovations. It is also expected to include the NCKU-based second laboratory of National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, and expand its scope of integration to research institutes in the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences and management sciences.
While TCUS has attained its short-term objective of integrating academic and research resources through the comprehensive integration of administrative structures, it is always reviewing its current status in order to find ways to make further improvements and enhance intercollegiate and inter-circle communications in pursuit of its long-term goal sustainable development. Accordingly, with regard to academic education, TCUS is set to cultivate distinguished citizens with both local concerns and international experience. In terms of research, TCUS is set to expand on its existing research achievements to develop its research centers into an integrated research cluster of regional and international importance. All in all, TCUS will continue to meet its responsibility to contribute its academic and research achievements to industrial development, as well as the formation of effective national strategies. In the long run, TCUS aims to develop itself into a think-tank for the government based in central-southern Taiwan, a powerful academic influence in the Asia-Pacific area, and a landmark university system that distinguishes itself in Taiwan, Asia and in the world.