The Academic Affairs Meeting for the first semester of the 2023 academic year was held on October 25 in the Ching-Sheng International Conference Hall. It was presided over by the Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Tzong-Ru Tsai, and attended by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Hui-Huang Hsu, deans of various colleges, department chairs, and representatives of faculty members and students, with simultaneous video participation from the Lanyang Campus.

The meeting began with Dr. Hsu presenting the "Master’s Student Honors Program Scholarship" to reward Honors Program graduates who continue their studies at the university for a master's degree. A total of 6 students received this award, including Pei-Wei Lin from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Guan-Jia Chen from the Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, Li-An Yen from the Department of French, Yun-Chen Kuo from the Department of Accounting, Chun-Jung Hung from the Department of Business Administration, and Jia-Xuan Xie from the Department of Statistics. Each awardee received a scholarship of NT$30,000.

The special presentation began with the Resilient Governance and Planning Section of the Sustainability Center distributing the "2023 Sustainability Issues of Tamkang University - Survey of the Risk Probability Identification of Business Impact" to all attending supervisors. After an initial explanation by the section head, Dr. Min-Fen Tu, they were asked to assess the impact of the 38 significant issues in 5 major categories on the organization's operations, including "Resilient Governance," "Talent Cultivation," "Institution Operations," "Environmental Sustainability," and "Social Inclusion." The results will be recorded in the questionnaire and used for weighted analysis when revealing the prioritization of significant issues in the sustainability report.

Dr. Rui-Mao Huang, the Head of the Social Practice Strategy Section at the Sustainability Center, presented the results of the "Competency-Oriented Higher Education Learning Innovation Project." He briefly explained the content and execution process of phase I and provided an overview of the achievements and reflections regarding the course "Exploring Sustainability" and "Competency-based Curriculum." He also proposed preliminary ideas for phase II, which aims to build upon the foundation of “university-wide promotion” and “dissemination across colleges” during phase I, strengthen the development of a "Teacher Community" and "Student Support Collaboration," continuously enhance the capabilities of the teacher community, and promote self-directed learning in sustainability education through the implementation of sustainability seeds, sustainability mentors, and the integration of guidance for first-year students.

Dr. Tsai and Dr. Xingchen C.C. Lin, the head of the Registration Section, focused on 2 major topics: "Extended Leave of Absence Application" and "Recognition of Overseas Credits." They emphasized the need for department chairs to closely monitor students' learning status, handle these matters with care, and offer timely guidance. In particular, in the case of "Recognition of Overseas Credits," it can have a significant impact on students' rankings, scholarships, and graduation. Therefore, they strongly recommended that fourth-year students who plan to study abroad on an exchange program be well-informed about the academic system and the related schedule for handling grades in the exchange country to avoid delaying their graduation.

During the meeting, 81 proposals were approved. In addition to the establishment of the "Tamkang University Elderly Health Service Talent Development Credit Program" and the "Tamkang University Food and Agriculture Education Talent Development Credit Program," a draft for the "TKU Regulations for Flexible Study for Undergraduate Students in Service during Schooling" was passed. This draft is in line with the policy of adjusting military service to one year. Undergraduate male students born in or after 1995 may apply for special enrollment for a one-year service according to their personal preferences during their study period. Furthermore, there were amendments proposed for the "TKU Regulations for Rewarding Full-time Faculty Teaching in English." The university-wide reduction of course credits as reward will start from the 2024 academic year. The limitations of 2 classes per academic year were removed, and additional provisions regarding reward applications by jointly teaching faculty were added.

SDGs #SDG04 Quality Education

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