NCUE actively carries out educational activities related to the SDGs, including fulfilling the university’s social responsibilities, guiding students to jointly implement USR projects related to local industry development and rural education, cultivating students to have knowledge related to the SDGs through general course lectures, offering bilingual workshops to promote students’ international perspectives, and offering counseling activities to lead students to understand physical and mental health and well-being (SDG 3) and gender equality (SDG 5), etc., which are summarized into six major items as follows:

1. The University’s social responsibility practice program called “Shetou Sock Production: From November 19^th to 20^th, 2022”, we participated in the “2022 USR EXPO” organized by the University Social Responsibility Promotion Center of the Ministry of Education at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei. We stood out among 196 participating projects from 91 colleges and universities in Taiwan and won the third place in the Best Popularity Interaction Award. For this project, we demonstrated the results of our work of more than four years, and the socks were made under the collaboration with e-commerce platform operators at the Expo. We also had roulette games to enable visitors to have a better understanding of the Shetou socks industry, culture, history, proverbs, etc., and improve their awareness of local culture to support quality socks and local development of Taiwan. Figures 1-2 below show the related activities.

News link:

National Changhua University of Education organized the “Seminar on Social Practice and Teaching Innovation”: https://reurl.cc/VLvGK6

National Changhua University of Education conducted the Shetou Socks USR project to help local industry regain their glory through SDGs connection: https://reurl.cc/kXj4Gq

SDGs relevance: No Poverty; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Reduced Inequalities; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Partnerships for the Goals

2. The university’s social responsibility practice programme called “In-Depth Cultivation of Fangyuan, Working Hand in Hand with Dacheng: Industrial and Environmental Sustainability Plan of the Two Townships of Changhua County”: In view of the sudden decline in clams and aging of the industrial population, we cooperated with the Changhua County Aquaculture Association, and signed a letter of intent to cooperate with the Aquaculture Department of the National Taiwan Ocean University as well as invited their clam culture experts to provide in-depth guidance. Professor Hung-chih Lai of the Department of Hydrobiology, National Chiayi University, who expertises in water quality and sediment analysis, has also helped solve the sudden decline in clams. At the same time, our students have helped solve local problems, helped local fishers develop their skills in a friendly environment, gained experience in production and marketing, and encouraged young people to return to their birthplaces to seek employment and start businesses. In 2022, we held 35 sessions of workshops, classes, visits, food and agriculture education winter camps, and promotion activities with local breeding industry operators. The highlights are shown in Figures 3 and 4. The activities attracted the participation of 2,919 people. Website: https://www.facebook.com/NCUEUSR.

SDGs relevance: Decent Work and Economic Growth; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Life Below Water

3. The university’s social responsibility practice programme called “Baisha × Common Good Education: Programme of Deeply Cultivating Twelve-year National Education in Remote Rural Areas”: The project aims to fulfill the university’s social responsibilities and enhance the professional knowledge and practical teaching skills of trainee teachers. It focuses on strengthening the integration of regional resources and improving the quality of rural education. It helps schools in the remote areas of Taichung County, Changhua County, Nantou County, and Yunlin County to form the “Baisha Quality Education Alliance”, so that the disadvantaged students in these remote areas can receive better learning opportunities and teaching resources. From July to August 2022, we collaborated with 9 schools in Changhua County to organize summer camps. 131 trainee teacher volunteers participated in the camp activities to serve 261 junior high school students. The summer camps have integrated regional standard courses and cross-field courses from local schools. For example, the geography class of Yiwu Junior High School, which led children from Yiwu Junior High School to visit the local wet pond, providing relevant knowledge on land subsidence and seawater intrusion, and courses relevant to the students through on-site visits, with the correct concept on how to use groundwater; the social studies class of Wanshing Junior High School combined the proverbs of Hokkien language with the histories of Changhua County, and used Google Maps to conduct a Proverb Treasure Hunt activity, which provided diverse and rich learning experiences, covering social, language, and IT fields. Baisha x Common Good Education USR contract signing with partners and activity highlights are as shown in Figures 5-6. The project website is https://reurl.cc/eDl5yQ.

SDGs relevance: No Poverty; Quality Education; Reduced Inequalities

4. “Cultural literacy”, “Scientific literacy”, “Hands-on practice”, “Independent thinking”, “Civic literacy” and “Global citizen mindset” are parts of the philosophy of the Center for General Education. In 2021, it offered core courses such as “Marine Culture and Taiwan”, “Introduction to Marine Life Sciences”, “Green Energy Technology”, “Hydropower Energy Conservation and Modern Life”, “Environmental Change and Human Civilization”, and others. In order to enhance students’ understanding of environmental sustainability and enable them to have hands-on experience, the center has offered the “Environmental Education Literacy and Application”, “Coastal Pioneers Cleaning the Sea”, “The Everlasting Forest - Tree-Planting”, “One-Day Fishing Port cultural exploration”, and other diverse learning courses, enabling students to fully understand the importance of sustainable development in environmental education. The center also held 5 symposium sessions, which attracted 740 participants, to enable students to know reliable and sustainable modern energy, enhancing the ideas of marine resources protection and sustainability. The list of general lectures held by various units of the University is detailed in Table 1, and the highlighted Figures of the lectures are detailed in Figures 7-9.

SDGs relevance: Quality Education; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Climate Action; Life Below Water

Table 1. List of general lectures held by various units of the University

5. The English-Medium Instruction Research Center and Language Center at NCUE promotes the internationalization of our students and the advancement of Taiwan’s bilingual policy.

(1)Several lectures and workshops related to bilingual teaching were held in 2021. We collaborated with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to invite the bilingual education expert Dr. Adrienne Johnson to coach a series of STEM + A online teaching workshops in English between October and December to train teachers to conduct classes of various subjects and professional knowledge using both Chinese and English. In addition to developing bilingual teaching resources for various subjects, we have organized class observations, special lectures, and workshops related to bilingual teaching to enable trainee teachers to understand the actual teaching scenarios in the future and how to prepare for their current schooling phase, so as to build their strength of bilingual teaching skills. We will cooperate with the Ministry of Education’s plan and continue to promote the Bilingual 2030 Policy to develop more excellent teachers who have bilingual proficiency.  The highlights of the lectures are shown in Figures 10-13.

(2)In line with the national bilingual policy, the Language Center offers English listening and reading classes at various levels to promote language proficiency testing and attain the goal of cultivating bilingual pre-service teachers. 25 students were trained in 2022 in response to the graduation requirements, counseling, and reward measures of the School of Management. In order to improve the English proficiency of undergraduate students in various departments of the School of Management, we have offered self-directed online learning courses and the final examination system. In 2022, 40 students graduated with the counseling process. Figure 14 shows the class session in progress.

SDGs relevance: Quality Education; Partnerships for the Goals; Decent Work and Economic Growth

6. The Student Psychological Guidance & Counseling Center of NCUE adopts lectures, workshops, and film appreciation activities to encourage students to explore their careers, understand the issues of physical and mental health and well-being (SDG 3) and gender equality (SDG 5), and guide students to reflect on their interaction with other individuals and build a friendly campus environment. Related courses and counseling activities are as follows:

(1)Class counseling for freshmen: Due to pandemic control policies adopted in recent years, students have experienced significant reductions in interpersonal interactions before and after the start of school, which has also affected the establishment of peer relationships to a considerable extent. Therefore, class counseling for freshmen in the 2021 academic year focused on interpersonal interaction and conflict response. The theme helped first-year students understand the facets of interpersonal conflicts, come into contact with conflict scenarios through interesting activity designs, and learn strategies and attitudes for coping with conflicts. Each session was two hours long and the class lasted for two weeks. 27 counseling classes for freshmen were completed, with a completion rate of 96%, and the participation satisfaction rate was 4.3.

(2)International student system collaboration: In the first semester of 2022, there were 98 inquiries on the topic of psychological health consultation for international students, overseas Chinese students, and students from China. Other related activities are detailed in Table 2 and Figures 15-16 below.

Table 2. The school’s psychological counseling activities for international students

(3)Group consultation activities: 5 group sessions were held. 25 participants showed up 157 times, with a total satisfaction rate of 4.12. Please refer to Table 3 below for details.

Table 3. Group consultation activities

(4)For the career counseling activities, one lecture session was held in 2022, and counselor Wen-Ling Nian was invited to give a lecture on “Insights into Human Nature in the Workplace from Korean Dramas - Techniques for Cultivating Mature Adults”. 29 people participated, with a satisfaction score of 4.36.

(5)Learning counseling activities: In the first semester of the 2021 academic year, the “Earning full learning experience points - Reincarnated as the leader among new hires in the workplace” and “Is my life a dream? Overcome obstacles on the road to study and career”. There were 83 participants, with a satisfaction rate of 4.54. Career and study guidance activities or online lectures are detailed in Figures 17-18.

SDGs relevance: Good Health and Well-being; Quality Education; Gender Equality