Geared up to celebrate its 100th Anniversary Celebration in a few short months, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) was just named winner of the 2024 CommonWealth Magazine University Citizen Award, distinguishing itself as the champion among all public technical and vocational schools in the country in the area of USR. At the award ceremony, which was held on September 18th, NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang and Center of Interdisciplinary Feature Development Director Hsu-Yang Kung accepted the award on behalf of the school.
Since its founding one hundred years ago, NPUST has earned itself a name as a “green university”—and for many years running, it has been achieving excellent results on the GreenMetric World University Rankings. Last year, for instance, it ranked 28th among more than 700 universities, globally, while ranking 4th in Asia and 1st in Taiwan. The university’s broader efforts when it comes to practicing university social responsibility (USR) are also having an impact. This impact is reflected by the results of the 2024 USR University Citizen survey, in which NPUST ranked first among all public technical and vocational universities for the first time. With across-the-board policies and measures aimed at complying with the ESGs, the school currently offers nearly 3,000 courses which correspond to sustainable development. Clear about its mission and focused on results, as early as 2019 NPUST already announced that it was setting 2049 as the target year for it to become the first school in its category to achieve a net zero status.
Over the years, NPUST’s accumulated achievements have pushed it to the top ranking among public technical and vocational universities when it comes to social participation and inter-university evaluated sustainable performances. Well before “sustainability” became the prominent topic it is today, NPUST’s agricultural talent was already travelling around the country and around the world to research, educate, and engage in agricultural activities. Teachers and students accompanied farming teams to African countries to help develop agricultural technology, and the Institute of Tropical Agriculture was established to recruit international students, cultivate international agricultural professionals, and improve the livelihoods of people living in allied countries. NPUST’s advancements in the area of tropical agriculture have been catching attention around the world, and attracting dignitaries from many countries looking to cooperate with the school.
As it continually expands its international influence, NPUST is cooperating with Indonesian universities to develop biomass energy, and working with Thailand, Vietnam and other countries to promote academic exchange and develop animal vaccine technology. Domestically, NPUST is giving focus to gaps in Pingtung County’s local development and responding to super-aged society trends by creating projects to meet related needs. When it comes to the environment, there are many cases to site. From Professor Yuan-Shiuan Suen who is helping farmers protect their crops from pests by installing raptor perches rather than resorting of poisons, to Professor Mei-Hsiu Hwang whose long term and careful conservation work with the Taiwanese black bears has had a national impact. Meanwhile, the work of Professor Emeritus Yu-Min Wang and his team has resulted in a low-carbon rice planting techniques which drastically reduce the amount of water required for rice cultivation. Adding a social element to the mix, Professor Meihui Chen has been helping mountainous tribes with the development of sustainable economic practices, and Professor Kui Kasirisir has been cooperating with the Pingtung County Government to improve residents’ lives through age-friendly services, counseling, and community training. With these ongoing practices in place and many clear goals set for the future, NPUST will continue to exert its influence and help bring about more positive changes to society.
