Since its inception, Cheng Shiu University (hereinafter referred to as the School or CSU) has endeavored to become a Pragmatic and Innovative Industrial Teaching University. In order to keep up with global sustainable development-related issues, the School has established a Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Promotion Committee to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the concept of global citizenship into teaching, research, and school administration development plans, focusing on social issues and integrating university and R&D resources with the region. In response to various important sustainable development-related trends and education policies in Taiwan and abroad, various units of the School have formulated action plans and key annual projects based on these trends and policies. Through the collective endeavors of the administrative units, departments, and the R&D centers, the goals of sustainable school administration involving Teaching Excellence, Industry-Academia Paradigm, and Sustainable Development can be achieved.

Teaching Innovation, In-depth Industrial Development

The school has a diversified departmental system to accommodate the needs of various educational stages in society. To reinforce the connection between school education and industry practice, the School has consolidated the characteristics of each department to optimize the practice environment – offering practical teaching venues for diverse professional talent training and customized talent cultivation. Besides, The School trains machine tool technicians and management trainees to meet the requirements of the local industries, thereby cultivating technical talents needed by the industries. Furthermore, the School has set up professional skill certificate training classes that are sanctioned by the government or meet the core competency requirements of various departments, including Class B certificates or employment assistance-related certificates. In academic year 2021, the School completed 1,536 industry-academia collaboration projects that exceeded NT$390 million. In the future, the School will support the government’s two major policies including Net Zero by 2050 and Six Core Strategic Industries, and continue to engage in industry-academia collaborations. Through R&D, technology transfer, incubation, and strategic alliances, the complementary assets such as relevant technologies, talent training, and new partnerships will be acquired to achieve greater innovation-related benefits.

Diverse Education and Sustainability Education

In terms of talent cultivation, the School emphasizes the spirit of Diversity and Cross Discipline, including offering cross-disciplinary credit courses to cultivate students’ diverse international outlooks, innovative and entrepreneurial abilities, as well as diverse practical skills. In recent years, besides offering suitable programming language courses to non-communication students, the School also has been stressing the cultivation of students’ humanistic qualities, including investing in the development of the Office of Arts and Culture. By opening general art courses, students have been giving more opportunities to be exposed to the field of art and culture. In 2022, the School’s art and culture activities were attended by more than 6,000 people. The School vigorously implements human rights education programs including conducting relevant general education courses, organizing human rights-themed learning activities, hosting teacher seminars on human rights issues, fostering a friendly campus environment (accessible space and facilities, and friendly toilets), and promoting human rights issue-related organizations. In 2022, the university assembly approved the Human Rights Policy of CSU.

Environmental Sustainability and Low-carbon Campus

The school is equipped with the Center for Environmental Toxin and Emerging Contaminant Research, which is the only one in all Taiwanese colleges or universities. By continuously investing in environmental sustainability-related studies and creating the databases for environmental toxins & emerging contaminants and testing methods, the center offers over 1,200 test items currently. The research center has vigorously engaged in international collaborations by hiring foreign researchers to promote international projects together. In addition, the School has actively supported the government’s green procurement program by giving priority to the purchase of products bearing the energy label. As a result, the School has repeatedly received the green procurement commendation over the years. To further respond to global carbon reduction and net zero campaigns, the School has completed its first GHG inventory in 2022 and acquired limited assurance from the CPA.

Social Engagement and Local Sustainability

The School applies existing strengths in teaching and R&D to revitalize the campus resources. Through industry-academia collaboration, the scope of service is expanded externally from students to industries, communities, or the general public. To encourage teachers and students to proactively realize university social responsibility (USR), support systems including teacher promotion, flexible salaries, and awards for teaching research are implemented for teachers, while diverse subsidies such as professional teacher community applications are made available to encourage teachers to implement relevant projects and improve their social responsibility professionalism. Concerning students, in addition to issuing volunteer hours, the Social Service Training Plan is also executed to encourage students to engage in social practice and reinforce the interaction between the School and the local community. The program has assisted over 1,000 school children in remote townships.

In recent years, CSU’s efforts in sustainability and USR has been gradually making significant impact. In 2022, the School received the GVM USR Talent Learning Model Award and participated in the TSAA Taiwan Sustainability Action Awards, standing out from the competition with two USR projects including Sustainability- Cishantology and Engender the Sustainable Power of Sinpi to win the Outstanding Award and Silver Award. To place more emphasis on the practice of sustainable issues, the School created the Office of Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development in 2022 with the vision of “Creating a Sustainable Campus, CoProsperity, and Promoting a Sustainable, Wonderful Life for the Local Community”. Furthermore, CSU signed the University Sustainable Development Proposal with the Chairman & Ambassador-at-Large, Yu-hsin Chien, of Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE), and also collaborated with the Taiwan Stock Exchange to become an incubation center of ESG talents in southern Taiwan. In the future, CSU will continue to develop its features and monitor the international sustainability trend, thereby fostering community development via the strength of the university, increasing the school’s social influence, and realizing the goals of sustainable development.

CSU President