National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) is characterized by pragmatism. In face of the challenges that higher education is currently presented with, such as declining birthrates, NPUST\u2019s president, Chin-Lung Chang, believes the affects will go beyond universities and industry will also experience a profound impact. Consequently, the aim is to cultivate students with interdisciplinary abilities so they can help fill the gaps that businesses will face. But what exactly does \u2018interdisciplinary\u2019 come down to? Chang believes that, in addition acquiring a diverse set of professional skills, attention should be given to language and communication, international mobility, and the ability to cooperate with others. Students should strengthen their professional skills; but also have empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the declining birth rate makes it difficult for the corporate world to find talent, Chang believes the school should help students go beyond their study majors, by cultivating humanistic qualities and allowing them to explore their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf students have good understandings of arts and aesthetics, they will have room for unlimited imaginations; and at least they will be able to follow good and honest pathways.\u201d And so, even though the goal of NPUST is to equip students to find employment immediately after graduation\u2014and prepare them further through corporate internships\u2014Chang also hopes that students will develop senses of humanistic care and empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf companies ignore humanistic considerations, they may have a negative impact on society.\u201d By way of example, Chang pointed out that some companies want to make quick profits, and so they spray large amounts of pesticides on crops to obtain high output value. But in doing so, the health of consumers can be affected and it may also cause environmental pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, Chang is a little worried that, because the current environment is diverse and free, and since students will have many job opportunities to choose in the future, they may be confused by the abundance of choices. While in school, he hopes that the students will be able to develop ideas about their directions in life. That way, when they are making their future career choices, they will have a better understanding of what they are going for. For instance, right now everyone might be thinking about catching the tech industry wave\u2014because of the high salaries. \u201cWe have heard the opinions from traditional industry. If everyone crowds into semiconductors, there will be a crowding out effect, resulting in shortages of people in those traditional sectors. Every industry is very important, and everyone cannot aim for the same specific industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to the question of \u2018how\u2019 to train students to have interdisciplinary abilities? Chang explained that education must cover technology, programming, language skills, international mobility, and the ability to make friends. When coming to university, the first goal is to learn about professional technology, and get involved in cross-disciplinary learning. But students also need to make friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUniversities are small versions of society. After leaving your hometown, you will be meeting students from different regions or even different countries. It is an adventure and a chance to make many friends.\u201d Chang said that getting to know more people is helpful for cultivating one\u2019s own personality. If you meet like-minded people, you will also have opportunities to start businesses together in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chang believes that the student societies at NPUST should be transformed. In the past, people have been getting together based on things they were interested in. In the future, he hopes that the student societies will be more than gatherings of like-minded people, but serve as bases for entrepreneurial activity. \u201cMore than just focusing on entertainment or intellectual thought, people from different departments can get together to think about ways in which their technologies can be combined and whether they can start a business together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, this kind of entrepreneurial spirit, involves an interdisciplinary element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NPUST has agriculture-related departments at its core, \u201cbut they often create very good production technology and products, even if they don\u2019t know how to market them. Therefore, those in agriculture have to learn packaging, because this takes into consideration ways to attract people to purchase your produces. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chang raised another an example. Today, you plant something and it grows very well; planting, of course, usually depends on manpower\u2014but can it be replaced by machines? \u201cIn the past, farmers sprayed pesticides by themselves. Can they instead use machines in the future?\u201d People in agriculture can consult with people in machinery and mechanics to see about creating robots for spraying pesticides in the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Original source\uff1aGlobal Views Monthly (\u9060\u898b\u96dc\u8a8c-\u5c4f\u79d1\u5927\u6821\u9577\u5f35\u91d1\u9f8d\uff1a\u5b78\u6821\u793e\u5718\u8b8a\u5275\u696d\u57fa\u5730\uff0c\u80b2\u6210\u4e16\u754c\u7d1a\u4eba\u624d) https:\/\/www.gvm.com.tw\/article\/100016<\/a>
Photo courtesy of Global Views Monthly (\u9060\u898b\u96dc\u8a8c)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4143,"template":"","genre":[],"colleges":[54],"visions":[29,31,30,32],"sdgs":[14,18,28],"class_list":["post-4142","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","colleges-administrative-unit","visions-ecological-industry","visions-platinum-society","visions-technology-agriculture","visions-blue-economy","sdgs-quality-education","sdgs-decent-work-and-economic-growth","sdgs-partnerships-for-the-goals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"colleges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/colleges?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"visions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/visions?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"sdgs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability.npust.edu.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sdgs?post=4142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}