The latest issue of Cheers, a magazine for working professionals, published the results of a most recent survey on Taiwan’s 1,000 businesses regarding their favorite college graduates last Tuesday. These results reveal that for 10 years consecutively, TKU has retained the top slot among private universities for being the most popular with employers and the 7th in the overall ranking, making it the only private university on the top ten list. It is behind National Taiwan University (NTU), Tsing Hua and Chiao Tung University, but ahead of Sun Yat-sen, Taipei University of Technology, and Central Universities.

What makes this year’s ranking special is the additional criterion, “Interdisciplinary Understanding,” Cheers created to expand the previous 7 criteria for evaluation. With this addition, National Cheng-kung University lost its crown and a ten year dominance over NTU; TKU was able to advance one place also because of this new equation. Other indicators of progress for TKU can be seen from its rankings in three criteria: No. 5 in “Team Spirit”, No 2 (from last year’s No. 6) in “Stability and Stamina”, and No. 4 (from last year’s 7) in “Willing to Learn”

Dr. Flora Chang, the President of TKU, is pleased with the results as they reflect the positive attitude employers hold towards TKU and will help our graduates in securing jobs. Nonetheless, she points out that TKU is only ahead of the 8th most popular university, Sun Yat-sen, by 2 points, so there is no room for complacency. If TKU wants to be among the top five instead of top ten in all criteria, there is still a great deal to be done, she adds. She says that TKU still needs to work on “ Professional Knowledge and Skills”, “Creativity”, “Global Vision and Foreign Language Skills”, “Problem Solving Abilities”, and of course, “Interdisciplinary Understanding.” For these, she has requested two Vice Presidents and 12 deans to come up with strategies, such as a better curriculum design and teaching methodology which will enhance students’ critical thinking and competitiveness.

For this year’s survey, Cheers had sent out 1,600 copies of questionnaires, among which 409 valid copies were returned, making the response rate 25.56%, a 2.43% increase from that of last year. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )