The 2021 14th TCSA Taiwan Enterprise Sustainability Award was hosted by the Taiwan Enterprise Sustainability Institute, the list of universities receiving the award was announced on November 13. Tamkang University’s first participation brought outstanding results by winning the "Sustainable Individual Performance - Social Inclusion Leadership Award" along with the National Tsing Hua University and the Tunghai University, the only three universities nationwide to receive such honor; in addition, TKU was also awarded the "Bronze Award for Sustainability Report," which is also an affirmation received by the university's first publication of the sustainability report this year. President Dr. Huan-Chao Keh and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Chii-Dong Ho attended the award ceremony held at the Grand Hotel at 1 PM on November 17th, and President Dr. Huan-Chao Keh personally accepted the award from Dr. Jong-Tsun Huang, the President of the Examination Yuan of ROC.

There are 38 universities participating this year, which is 30% more than last year. This shows that the current university business model not only focuses on academic research but also exerts on core capabilities. Through the integration of education, research, and academics with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, interactions with the social development and active contributions to the sustainable development of Taiwan and worldwide may be achieved. The "Social Inclusion Leadership Award" refers to the establishment of an extensive vision and goals of social inclusiveness for universities, and works well together for the mutual benefit of the university and the needs of the society, mainly possessing "the creation of shared value" as the university's core goal and vision, and retaining a benchmarking role and leadership position; the "Sustainability Report" is based on the content of the report revealing the situation of the university's information, whether detailed, transparent, substantive, possessing the function of communication, as well as the application of the report in multiple media and the quality of the content are all applied to conduct selection.

The Office of Quality Assurance and Audit is responsible for the participation of this competition and the Chief Audit Executive Der-Wen Chang explained, Tamkang has worked hard to connect local areas with sustainability for a long time, especially during recent years, TKU has spared extensive efforts to promote the implementation of University Social Responsibility (USR) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of this competition is to examine through a third party, checking and detecting whether the university’s overall implementation is worthy of encouragement and if any shortcomings may be identified. At the same time, we may also understand the promotion status of other institutions which may be used as a reference for future enhancement or improvement. "At present, faculties and students within the university have gradually understood the importance of USR and SDGs, and are willing to participate and put them into practice. After the establishment of the Center for Sustainable Development and Social Innovation this year, relevant plans will be promoted more systematically. In addition to designing applicable courses in cooperation with the Center for General Education and Core Curriculum, assisting in the planning of literacy-oriented teaching innovation projects, the center also cooperated with the New Taipei City Government and other units, hoping to gain more in social innovation and local creation."

In addition to the above-mentioned awards, the Associate Professor Dr. Min-Fen Tu of the Department of Business Administration, the Associate Professors Dr. Jui-Mao Huang and Dr. Yueh-Hsia Chang of the Department of Education and Futures Design, the Associate Professor Dr. Ting-Ling Lai of the Department of Educational Technology won two bronze medals for their USR project, coming to a total of four awards this year. In addition to acknowledging the past efforts of the teaching faculties and students of the university by obtaining such results, Tamkang University President Dr. Huan-Chao Keh anticipates that everyone to diligently seek improvements with "sustainability" as the core concept, and through the integration of local, global, wisdom, and future elements by applying innovative strategic tools of "AI technology and cloud services," and achieving the vision of "Creating a Great Tamsui and Intelligent Future." For more award-winning news, please visit http://tkutimes.tku.edu.tw/dtl.aspx?no=53932

SDGs

---