The eighth key point of the university’s middle- and long-term development plan states the core goal of ‘strengthening the openness of higher education to the public and fulfilling social responsibilities’. The plan includes courses and activities that involve interactions with local communities, such as the ‘implementation of locally recognised massive open online courses and associated activities’, ‘strengthening the connection between local institutions to realise joint exploration of local issues’, ‘caring for local industrial parks’, ‘joining hands and linking with Changhua’s regional industries’, ‘cooperation in building Changhua’s green energy industry’, and ‘building a game and sports network to empower the elder community’. The details are as follows.

1. Implementation of locally recognised massive open online courses and associated activities

1.1   Based on the existing courses of ‘Life Exploration Development and Practice’, NCUE has designed courses, competitions, lectures, and workshops that cover such topics as ‘university spirit’, ‘NCUE identity’, and ‘local identity’ and associated activities. These are designed to deepen students’ identification with and understanding of the community, encourage students to autonomously shoulder the responsibility of improving the community, thereby deepening the connection between the university and the local regions.

1.2   The university offers continuing education courses, including credit courses in continuing education, short-term training courses, and non-credit courses. These enable the university’s teachers and students, the public, and the community members to continue their studies and realise lifelong learning based on their own learning interests. To offer continuing education, the university has formulated training and development policies (College of Extention Education, NCUE), relevant regulations, and operating procedures for the designing, setting up, and implementing the courses. The College of Extension Education, NCUE, website can be found here:
http://cee.ncue.edu.tw/regulation.php?masn=4&unitsn=5_

1.3   The university’s Language Centre focuses on continuing education, offering regular continuing education courses in various languages and mixing theory and practice to enable people inside and outside the university to pursue lifelong language learning. The Language Centre also offers customised language training courses for government agencies and enterprises to assist them in providing language training for their employees. The foreign language division accepts students for spring, summer, and autumn courses annually. The Chinese language division has admitted non-Chinese students from overseas to come to Taiwan to study since 2014. Quarterly courses are held in spring, summer, autumn, and winter annually, and Chinese language teacher training courses are offered every summer. To publicise the courses, during the enrolment period, the Language Centre announces the registration information and procedures on the official website and social media (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) and sends letters to government agencies, schools, companies, associations, sister universities, and foreign Chinese language institutions for joint publications. Students can register by filling in the registration form and uploading the information through the online registration system. (For details of the courses offered by the foreign language division and the Chinese language division of the Language Centre, please refer to the process flow charts in Annex 16.2.3B and Annex 16.2.3C.)

2. Strengthening the connection between local institutions to realise joint exploration of local issues

2.1   NCUE invites local experts, scholars, and representatives of regional institutions (e.g. provincial and county governments, social welfare institutions, local enterprises and community colleges) to clarify and communicate community issues to assist community development and foster an active and harmonious environment of social participation. Among Taiwan’s universities, NCUE was a pioneer in setting up community psychological counselling and potential development centres serving people in the community. The Centre provides mental health services, including potential development, for local community residents and institutions. It also links university and community college resources to provide a sound education mechanism for local residents and strengthen interactions between NCUE and county/city governments to solve the government agencies’ problems. NCUE hopes that implementing the above strategies will help NCUE and the local regions realise innovative cooperation, mutual benefits, and common prosperity. The NCUE community counselling clinic website can be found here:
https://human1.ncue.edu.tw/files/11-1012-12.php?Lang=zh-tw

3. Professional training for mental health professionals provided by the community psychological counselling centre

3.1   To enhance mental health professionals’ practical training, the community psychological counselling centre offers workshops on youth cases to train youth counselling specialists. Mental health professionals can acquire professional knowledge and skills in psychology that can improve the quality of their youth counselling. The workshops provide a pragmatic mix of theories, practice, and case studies to consolidate the professionals’ knowledge and skills.

4. Caring for local industrial parks

4.1   NCUE and its partner universities integrate relevant resources in a cross-disciplinary and cross-university manner. The university arranges visits to industrial parks to explore industrial problems, train the talent, provide industry-relevant joint courses, organise student internships and clerkships, and hold industry–university innovation competitions for college-level students focusing on solving the parks’ issues and advance industrial development.

4.2   The Innovation Incubation Centre, which belongs to the Research and Development Department of NCUE ,caring for the local industries, focuses on promoting new ventures and assisting the traditional industries. The Centre adheres to national strategies through the following: actively developing such technological fields as precision machinery, smart electric vehicles, and green energy industries; providing core technologies for developing diversified platforms; gathering outstanding entrepreneurs for joint training to devise enterprise improvements; and supporting new ventures to build refined incubation networks. Such efforts enhance enterprise values, magnify industry–university cooperation, encourage self-driven enterprises, and expand local industries’ advantages. Through vertical and horizontal integration and cross-industry and intra-industry alliances, the Centre’s efforts form industrial clusters and contribute to the nation’s prosperity. Together with the local government’s regional industrial development plans, the Centre does the following: provides direction for the evaluation mechanisms through its policies; helps academia generate research and development (R&D) energy; guides small- and medium-sized enterprises in applying for relevant government R&D subsidies; assists manufacturers in obtaining R&D subsidies and technical cooperation between schools; and fosters cooperation between industries, the government, and academia to realise a win–win–win situation of shared industry prosperity, shared regional benefits, and shared resources. NCUE’s Innovation Incubation Centre website can be found here:
http://incubator.ncue.edu.tw/

5. Joining hands and linking with Changhua’s regional industries

5.1   Changhua County has mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises. The challenges faced by industrial development at this stage include the following: technical personnel shortages; process and product upgrades; process optimisation and automation; cloud platform integration and relevant data analysis; process-yield monitoring technologies; wastewater treatment; environmental monitoring; energy and water conservation; and green energy implementation. These challenges have motivated the teachers in NCUE’s specialised fields to leverage resources drawn from partner universities and introduce the concepts and technologies of ‘smart machinery’ and the Internet of Things and transform traditional industries into smart manufacturing industries aligned with Productivity 4.0 to transform Changhua County into a ‘smart city’. The project website can be found here:
https://zh-tw.facebook.com/NCUEUSR/

6. Cooperation on building Changhua’s green energy industry

6.1   Taiwan has 36 potential offshore wind power sites that have been assessed by the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs, with 21 clustered in the sea off Changhua. Changhua’s insolation conditions are excellent for the development of solar power. The county also has various types of agricultural and livestock production to foster the development of biomass energy. NCUE hopes to integrate the resources of officials and academia—including the Innovation Incubation Centre of NCUE, the Changhua County government, and the Taiwan Power Company—to establish talent cultivation and certification mechanisms for relevant competencies, collaboratively build an industry chain of green energy in Changhua, and encourage the retention of the associated human resources, technologies, and jobs in Changhua to fulfil NCUE’s social responsibility. Please refer to Annex 16.2.3F for more details.

7. Building a game and sports network to empower the local elder community

7.1   NCUE’s teachers and students have formed teams to energise and empower the community. NCUE students have been educated in the compulsory ‘Life Exploration Development and Practice’ courses and other liberal education courses. Such experiences strengthen the existing teacher–student service network and help students reflect on their established service relationship to identify and solve the problems faced by the young and the elderly under care. Guided and assisted by NCUE’s teachers, the students are encouraged to apply what they learn and form cross-disciplinary creative teams. The university has introduced innovative education methods involving problem-oriented practical learning, such as interdisciplinary programmes, an interdisciplinary credit system, and practical workshops to promote mental health among the elderly. The students—assisted by teachers inside and outside the university and various manufacturers’ resources—design specific and applicable game tools and assistive devices using the latest technology (e.g. cloud technology and remote gaming) to build a variety of applications and devices. The structured game methods involving real or virtual scenarios can enhance the interaction between the elderly and their relatives, friends, and caregivers to improve their quality of life and address problems associated with ageing. The students’ efforts help the local communities care for the elderly by fostering their positive self-acceptance and developing new psychological and social adjustment skills that make their lives more comfortable. The professional, personnel, and community practice courses of NCUE’s physical education departments also help empower the local elder community using resources drawn from local governments, the medical institutions in Central Taiwan (e.g. the Changhua Christian Medical Foundation Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, and public health centres), and civil sports centres. They serve local elders by providing professional physical fitness tests, customised exercise plans, and health education information; instructing them about beneficial exercise concepts and lifestyle improvements; and strengthening their muscles to prevent falls and lower their chances of suffering from the 3Ds (disability, dementia, and death). The joint efforts help ensure that the elderly remain as happy, healthy, and mobile as possible for as long as possible.

8. Other relevant measures to link with local communities

8.1   NCUE has established an off-campus rental housing service mechanism to serve neighbouring off-campus landlords and students who rent off-campus residences. The project aims to strengthen the quality of NCUE’s rental housing services and effectively protect the students who rent off-campus residences. (See Annex 16.2.3A for details). The specific actions are as follows:

8.1.1 In the first semester of each academic year, class tutors visit the off-campus residences. In the second semester, the accommodation team continues to visit and track the conditions of students’ residential rentals. The team conducts random building safety inspections of newly rented residences.

8.1.2 The university’s cloud rental platform provides rental information from the landlords who cooperate with the university. NCUE actively encourages students to use the information.

8.1.3 The parents of students who have just rented a residence receive Notices for Off-campus Rental Matters to increase their knowledge about rental matters.

8.1.4 Experts and scholars are invited to give lectures on rental safety every academic year.

8.1.5 NCUE works with the regions’ police and firefighters to issue safety certifications to the landlords who cooperate with the university.

8.1.6 NCUE has set up groups in the Line communication app for instant communication with the landlords who cooperate with the university.

8.1.7 The accommodation team operates a service window to provide consultation services for students on rental matters and rental dispute mediation. The cases are referred to legal service societies or relevant professional organisations as needed. For more information, see the following websites:

• Student’s off-campus rental service project: http://student.ncue.edu.tw/files/11-1017-1399-1.php
• Rental safety certification webpage: http://student.ncue.edu.tw/files/14-1017-19011,r113-1.php?Lang=zh-tw
• Cloud rental network: https://house.nfu.edu.tw/announce/3571

8.2   NCUE has a parking space discount system. The underground parking lot of NCUE’s Jinde campus is open to the community or outsiders to rent (30 minutes of free parking is available) on an episodic or a long-term basis. Since the campus is located in Fuxing village of Changhua City, residents there who live nearby can enjoy a discounted monthly rental fee. There are quotas for the applications; the quotas, service periods, application procedures, and other relevant measures are implemented according to the Office of General Affairs. Those who hire the university’s venues to hold activities can enjoy a one-time discounted fee. See Annex 16.2.3D for details of the university parking lot management measures.

Attached (including supporting evidence) information:

Annex 16.2.3A  Student’s Off-campus Rental Service Project, NCUE

Annex 16.2.3B  Process flowchart for the NCUE Language Centre’s Chinese language courses

Annex 16.2.3C  Process flowchart for the NCUE Language Centre’s foreign language courses

Annex 16.2.3D  Parking Lot Management Measures of NCUE

Annex 16.2.3E   NCUE Community Counselling Clinic

Annex 16.2.3F    Report on the Opening of the Solar Photovoltaic System at NCUE

   SDG16.2.2 Students’ union

SDG16.2.4 Participatory bodies for stakeholder engagement