The “TKU Total Quality Management (TQM) Workshop” was held last Wednesday (March 21). Dr. Flora C.I. Chang, President of TKU, announced in the opening ceremony that TKU will join the 18th National Quality Award contest this year, and she encouraged all the staff to do their best.

Our school had applied for National Quality Award in 2001, but did not win the award despite of entering into the second stage of the contest. Hsu Ting-chi, Director of Personnel Office, was the keynote speaker of TQM Workshop this year, who also promoted the National Quality Award Contest in TKU last time. He delivered a speech entitled “The Challenge of National Quality Award” and provided a lot of his experience in the last contest. He pointed out that the document preparation is crucial. In our documents, we should highlight the demonstration of administrative achievement with cross-reference of related materials, in agreement with the PDCA principle (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Moreover, the tip for writing application is “chart is better than table; table is better than words,” which means we should employ system chart, flowchart, and detailed statistics to illustrate the continuity and integrity of data. Last but not least, KPI （Key Performance Indications）index should be set up in order to evaluate the executive performance of each plan. “According to the past experience, the prize jury take‘correspondence among units’ very seriously. Hence, each unit should be familiar with other units’ business,” stressed by Hsu.

The workshop also invited Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, the winner of 1st Tamkang Quality Award, and Curriculum Section, Office of Academic Affairs, to share their experience. Chang Ben-hang, Associate Director of Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, indicates that, in order to win the contest for Tamkang Quality Award, he not only studied the reference book about National Quality Award, but also consulted Dr. Flora C.I. Chang’s book Total Quality Management in Higher Education Administration Concepts and Practices. Chang read many domestic and foreign books about TQM so that he could measure the situation of the second stage of the competition. Chang chooses the beta version of “E-pen Writing System” , which has been put into circulation in Taiwan recently, as example to demonstrate the administrative achievement of Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center.

Curriculum Section represented Office of Academic Affairs to participate in the Tamkang Quality Award Contest. Chiang Kuo-fang, Section Chief of Curriculum Section, indicates that it seems the section has gone through a physical examination during the contest, although they did not win the prize. They learned and grew during the process of the contest, and the connection between colleagues was strengthened through the team cooperation. Chiang pointes out, “The contest of Tamkang Quality Award is not just a competition, but a way to demonstrate the progressive improvement and innovation of a unit.” ( ~Shu-chun Yen )