Abstract

The focus of STUST’s "Higher Education Sprout Project" during the first stage (2018-2019) incorporated 4 aspects: teaching innovation and efficiency enhancement, featured R&D and academia-industry collaboration, higher education accessibility, and university social responsibility.

The implementation of each aspect focused on multiple strategies, such as: the promotion of teaching innovation practices, strengthening students' core ability and interdisciplinary learning, and the enhancement of students' practical technical ability. Furthermore, the establishment of a high-quality innovative entrepreneurship education environment was also achieved, as well as the development of curriculum innovation for engineering talent cultivation; the galvanization of multi-option faculty promotion mechanisms, and the development of "5 + 2 + 2 + 1" national key industrial technologies. Moreover, the continuous expansion of capacity regarding academia-industry cooperation and technology commercialization remains an objective and the establishment of a regional industry-university R&D base was successful. We continuously set standards to improve fundraising mechanisms for vulnerable students' financial aid and learning counseling initiatives. Additionally, we are building a foundation for institutional research and information disclosure measures; and fulfilling STUST's university social responsibility (USR) imperatives.

The implementation achievement of each aspect in 2019 is described as follows. With regard to teaching innovation and efficiency enhancement, 38% faculty successfully adopted innovative teaching principles. Eight hundred and twenty-two awards were won by students in domestic and international thematic competitions, reflecting STUST's effectiveness and guidance in the cultivation of students' application expertise. STUST has also successfully promoted interdisciplinary learning through the modularization of courses, resulting in 2,407 students who have studied courses cross-disciplinarily.

Relating to the featured R&D and academia-industry collaboration initiatives, STUST supported faculty in the enhancement of their practical knowledge, thus leading to 77% of full-time faculty gleaning practical industrial experience. To develop school featured research programs, STUST stimulated faculty to organize interdisciplinary R&D teams, and in so doing the sharing of technologies and resources, and the provision of total solutions for partner companies became a reality. To date 23 R&D centers have been established. Furthermore, STUST organized and arranged resources from industry partners for utilization by faculty and students to establish the “Industry-academia Collaborative Joint R&D centers” on campus. There is a joint collaboration, which has extended from the development of cutting-edge industrial technologies and the creation of a seamless environment between industry and academia for teachers and students. Currently, there are five such Joint R&D centers which are operational on campus.

In 2019, STUST was responsible for the contribution of over 350 thousand USD relating to technology transfer, and over 24 million USD of academia-industry collaboration funding received from industries. These funds were initiated from the “Industry-academia Collaborative Joint R&D Centers.  Moreover, analysis reflects that each case represented an average of 57 thousand USD. The average value per regular case is 9 thousand USD, and this is a demonstration that the Joint R&D centers have further created more industrial value. Additionally, there were 17 companies that collaborated with STUST for more than 3 years, which culminated in funding of more than 16 thousand USD on average per year.  This reveals that the relationships between STUST and industries has progressively developed from a “shallow collaboration” to a “symbiotic partnership”. This is a validation of the contribution and value additives, resulting from the school's reformation in recent years. In terms of technology commercialization, STUST’s spin-off herbal medicine company, has been engaged in developing new curcumin derivatives for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and has raised funding exceeding 8.8 million USD. This is a proud achievement and significantly highlights the school’s R&D achievements within this realm.

Regarding the promotion of higher education accessibility, STUST has raised the highest amount of funding amongst all public/private Science and Technology universities, the value being over 178 thousand USD in 2019. These funds are allocated for the improvement of disadvantaged students' learning quality, and employment opportunities.

Finally, regarding the fulfillment of the university social responsibility (USR), STUST encouraged the teachers and students to connect with local government or organizations. This was achieved by providing courses and activities, which utilized departmental expertise to resolve social issues, and also created impetus for community care provision. In 2019, STUST’s deep ploughing USR program adopted AIoT technology to support the community, and the sprout USR program assisted the Shennong Street and Phoo-Tse Temple to raise funds, for them to continue to maintain their traditional annual Lantern Festival activities. STUST was also actively devoted to regional development, including the operation of the “Tainan Cultural and Creative Industry Park” a division of the Ministry of Culture. Moreover, STUST leads the operation of the “SME Incubator at the Southern Taiwan Science Park” which is a division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.