For gaining a better insight in the future of Taiwan’s university graduates, Ministry of Education (MOE) contracted the National Taiwan Normal University to set up a database tracking the career development of recent graduates. MOE also decided to use such data as part of the university assessment; hence, those university programs that do not meet certain requirements two years in a row will be suspended.
In response, Dr. Flora Chang instructed Dr. Kao Po-yuan, the Vice President for the Administrative Affairs to speak to relevant faculty and staff of the significance of the decision in a meeting that will be held in December. TKU needs to act fast to establish its own database by encouraging pending and past graduates to fill out a special on-line form, so that the university can track and help their career development.
As results of such surveys have great impact on Tamkang’s future assessment, Dr. Kao points out that a well-integrated plan should be in place. He believes that professors can play a big role in guiding or even creating career opportunities for students. Furthermore, professors should be the bridge between the university and the alumni. Therefore, he suggests that measures such as putting the frequency of faculty members contacting alumni down as one of the criteria on the Teacher Assessment Form and all professors should agree to make initial contacts on students’ behalf when taking on Master’s and doctoral students. On the other hand, the university will award those programs or individuals that deliver satisfactory performance in this regard.
MOE’s database will be contributed by two sources: First is to survey on the pending graduates (both under- and post-graduates), who are required to fill in a online questionnaire about their plans for the future, whereas the second should come from surveys on graduates that have left university for one, three and five years respectively. Randomly chosen graduates from this group will answer questions on their satisfaction level with their alma mater and current employment/employers. The responding rate should be 75% and above to render the surveys valid.
At present, the university has completed the survey conducted on the 2005 graduates. The completion rate was 84%. However, surveys on other years, such as 2004 were not very satisfactory yet. Dr. Chen Min Nan, the Director of the Alumni Services and Resources Development (ASRD), says that satisfactory results demand cooperation from all sides ranging from deans to departmental assistants.
To this, the university has assigned the Career Planning and Placement Section to be in charge of the survey on the pending graduates and the ASRD of previous graduates. As for the 2004 survey, the university asked each department to be more aggressive in contacting alumni in filling out the questionnaire. The questionnaire and other details can be found at http://www.cher.ed.nt-nu.edu.tw/. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )
