Strong Academia and Industry Collaboration drives NTNU to the Top Universities in Taiwan
Global Views Monthly published the Top Universities in Taiwan survey on June 29. National Taiwan Normal University has been on top 1 for five consecutive years among universities focusing on humanities and social sciences. In the academic year of 2020, the amount of academia and industry collaboration income exceeded 1.1 billion NTD, second only to National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University, and some science and technology universities. In addition, both academic achievement and teaching performance ranked seventh, which is also an improvement over last year, and the total number of Chinese papers and the average number of papers by teachers also ranked first in Taiwan.
This year's survey is based on six aspects: academic achievement, teaching performance, academia and industry collaboration, degree of internationalization, social reputation, and financial physique, covering a total of 44 smaller indicators. NTNU has shown significant progress in aspects like social reputation, academic achievement, and teaching performances.
The 'Best Universities of the Year' survey by Global News Monthly was done in the form of mutual evaluation. National Taiwan Normal University ranked fifth among national universities, one step higher than last year. The survey pointed out that the three major aspects of running a school that school principals value most are 'industry linkage', 'interdisciplinary integration' and 'international cooperation'. According to the report, industry linkage depends on “academia and industry collaboration resources from alumni associations”. Whether the principal can introduce external resources to become a school-running aid and bring operational resources is an important observation point for principals when evaluating the strength of one’s school-running.
Traditionally, universities with more science and technology related departments are better in monetizing their outcome. However, the report pointed out that although the humanities and social sciences of NTNU account for more than 60% of the departments of the school, it is very strong in academia and industry collaboration. In 2020, the income generated by academia and industry collaboration was over 1.1 billion NTD, second only to National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University, and some science and technology universities.
The report states that distance teaching and digital teaching materials are becoming more and more important after the pandemic. NTNU is ranked seventh in academia and industry collaboration because of its abundant talents in Chinese language education, sports and leisure. In addition, NTNU has started developing smart education, Chinese language technology and healthy living early on. With the popularization of technology and the pandemic, NTNU was advanced largely in digital learning. Sports and caring are also the strengths of NTNU. With solid foundation of teacher training and education, it’s easy for sports and health care majors to work on exercise for elderly, sports science in an aging society. Businesses in related industry are eager to cooperate with NTNU.
NTNU ranked seventh in academic achievement while the top six universities are all medical universities or universities with strong emphasis on science and medicine. In particular, the average number of Chinese papers by full-time teachers is 2.98, with a total of 2,463 papers, making NTNU the most prolific university in paper in Taiwan.
The ranking of teaching performance is highly competitive. The top six universities all have medical schools. This year, NTNU advanced to seventh. The report points out that due to the pandemic, distance teaching forced schools to transform their teaching quality and quantify. Students no longer limited to classrooms. It’s of utmost importance for schools to provide more diverse and comprehensive education.
NTNU ranked ninth in financial physique, the magazine believes that financial physique has become an important aspect of the public's concern for school running. This year, the 'quick ratio' first disclosed by the Ministry of Education was added to the ranking. It is also an indicator to observe the solvency of a school, and NTNU is ranked as one of the universities with the best financial physique this year, mainly because of major government grant, but also has a stronger and more popular academic-university cooperation which generated more income.