On the verge of entering the ‘4th wave’ of TKU establishment, Dr. Clement C. P. Chang, the Founder, reiterated the imperative of a new and flexible system for the university at the conference entitled “Renovation of Teaching and Administration” on last Friday, October 22. The theme of the event is ‘Welcoming TKU 4th Wave’, on which he spoke of the importance of adopting a brand-new organization, vibrant academic environment and a flexible hiring policy.
On preparing for the arrival of ‘4th Wave’, the Founder pointed out that the university has invested approximately NT$ 32 billion over the past two years on projects such as an indoor Stadium, Foreign Languages Building, Lanyang Campus, and the purchase of FT-NMR (Fourier Transformation Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers) for the Chemistry Department. These are only some of the investments in hardware, which are needed for a good university. However, he firmly believes investment in the ‘software’ of a university, which is reorganizing the institute by implementing effective systems, is the key to an even better university. Effective systems, according to him, include sensitive leadership and corporate culture; an affirmative sense of mission and vision; quality research and publishing; progressive teaching and learning; effective distribution of resources and performance-oriented management and finally, advanced IT as well as e-learning platform. In order to reach any of the above, a clearly defined mission statement is absolutely necessary, and so is the exact execution of the systems and resources. Most importantly, there has to be a consensus among all the University employees recognizing that a re-organization is inevitable.
One way of ensuring the implementation of effective systems as part of the re-organization is to set up at least five working committees to monitor progress, Dr. Chang suggested. These committees are “Committee for the Execution and Planning of University Affairs”, “Committee for Integrated Development Research Center”, “Committee for Globalization and International Exchange and Development”, “ Committee for Information and Communication Development” and “ Committee for Futuristic R&D”. On the issue of a flexible hiring policy, he explains carefully that TKU needs to employ more part-time faculty to deal with the expanded and innovative curriculum when existing full-time members no longer have the capacity.
TKU President, Dr. Flora Chang, who also spoke at the conference, supplemented the Founder by stressing the necessity of pursuing excellence in knowledge, which would require the undivided efforts from all faculty members. She urged all members to pay attention to the individual needs of every student as that would be the only way to enhance their performance from satisfactory to excellent. Teaching aside, faculty members, she maintained, should not neglect research. At the moment there is 60 to 70 percent of application and approval rate in research projects from NSC, but she feels that there is still some room for improvement provided every faculty applies for grant.
There were six papers presented at the conference and two discussion sessions in the afternoon chaired by Kao Po-yuan, and Feng Chao-kang, the two Vice Presidents of TKU respectively. Dr. Flora Chang, the President, chaired the final discussion panel. She and the Founder closed the conference.
