“TKU will be sailing toward the Fourth Wave in the year 2005,” Dr. Clement Chang, Founder of TKU, instructed at the Seminar on Teaching and Administrative Innovations, on Saturday Oct. 25, 2003. He blueprinted the future TKU as a multi-function global university which answers to the multiple needs of the twenty-first century, and requested the ten colleges of the university to set up short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans for the massive undertaking, which will get started next spring.

In the seminar, Dr. Chang emphasized that in order to quest for TKU’s continuing development plans have to be made and shortcomings should be overcome. He requested every college to set up short-term plan for 2003 to 2005, medium-term plan for 2005 to2010, and long-term plan for 2010 to 2020. TKU has developed into a comprehensive university with four campuses, Tamsui, Taipei, Lanyang, and Cyber campuses. It covers three university functions: instruction, research, and service. The triple objectives of TKU - Globalization, Information-orientated Education, and Future-orientated Education-will facilitate with the construction of a Foreign Languages Building and a Gymnasium next year.

There were more than two hundred faculty and staff members attending this seminar, including deans, directors/chairs of colleges, heads of various administrative offices and representative professors from every college. Nine reports were given in this seminar:

●“How to Make Tamsui Campus an Internationally Noted Research-orientated University”

●“Taipei Campus: the Present and Future of Continuing Education”

●“Developing Strategies for Lanyang Campus”

●“Cyber Campus, Episode I: Solid Foundation”

●“Welcoming the Age of Beyond the Virtual Classroom”

●“Criteria of Education”

●“Transforming the Traditional Classroom into a Workshop of Knowledge”

●“Foundation for Deep Learning”

●“A New Prospect of Higher Education”

In his address to the attendants, President Horng-jinh Chang informed that new environment is forming for the universities in Taiwan. The Ministry of Education is going to categorize universities by setting up criteria of evaluation, hence to decide which department/institute or college/university will be replaced or increased. The competition and challenge will be very harsh for the local universities and colleges.

President Chang praised teachers of TKU for their ambitious and strenuous efforts in doing research. He wished them to create a better prospect in instruction, research and services for the Fourth Wave of TKU under the guidelines of proper plans of short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans.