The Social Practice Center is dedicated to 3 core missions: promoting social engagement, advocating character education, and advancing life education.
Through targeted strategies and concrete implementation, the center aims to cultivate five key competencies among students at NTNU—Interdisciplinary Thinking and Action, Compassion and Empathy, Critical and Reflective Thinking, Practical Engagement, and Resilience and Adaptability. We aim to cultivate holistic student development, empowering NTNU students to become modern citizens equipped with civic literacy, social impact, and resilience.•Interdisciplinary Thinking and Action: The ability to integrate knowledge, skills, and resources across diverse backgrounds to create value or solve complex problems.
•Compassion and Empathy The capacity to understand and respond to others' feelings and needs with compassion, actively contributing to their well-being.
•Critical and Reflective Thinking: The habit of critically reflecting on personal experiences to foster continuous improvement and personal development.
•Practical Engagement: The ability to assess situations, execute tasks effectively, and pursue long-term goals through consistent and purposeful action.
•Resilience and Adaptability: The strength to adapt and recover when facing adversity or pressure, demonstrating mental flexibility and perseverance.
University students' participation in social practice is a vital pathway to enhancing their ability to interact with society. Involvement in social practice not only facilitates the application of academic knowledge, but also strengthens practical skills and deepens students' understanding and competence in their professional fields. Social practice further cultivates students' problem-solving abilities and innovative thinking, encouraging them to explore new solutions. The process of reflection and improvement that occurs through these real-world experiences plays a crucial role in personal growth.
Through active participation in social practice, students are also able to build broader social networks, expand their career perspectives, and develop social resilience—laying a solid foundation for their future professional endeavors. Numerous quantitative and qualitative studies have confirmed that social practice enhances students' ability to integrate diverse forms of knowledge and apply them in practice. In fact, many leading universities around the world emphasize social connection and advocacy as essential ways for students to engage with the real world, leverage their strengths, and promote social justice.
Strategies for Promoting Social Practice
•Develop social practice-related courses and programs.
•Advocate the core concepts of social practice and encourage students to initiate their own social issue projects.
•Strengthen students' competencies in social practice to enhance social resilience and social impact.
