In order to enhance the international competitiveness of students, improve the effectiveness of education, and make the graduates of our department more in line with the needs of the international labor market, we established the International Graduate Program in 2017.This not only solves the gradual shortage of domestic master and doctoral students, but also achieves the goal of increasing the energy of international research in civil engineering. In 2021, we launch the full English Undergraduate Program in which all the compulsory courses are taught in English. Currently there are around 17 English-taught courses of our department in undergraduate and graduate programs every year. Our prospects are:
- To cultivate international assets in civil engineering: As far as civil engineering (infrastructure and sustainable environment) is concerned, the domestic job market and environment have their limitations, but other countries(especially Southeast Asia) are emerging markets full of opportunities. Compared with Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries, Taiwan’s civil engineers do not have sufficient international mobility. Therefore, it is necessary to internationalize our undergraduate program to cultivate international talents.
- To enhance the international competitiveness of teachers and students: We aim to cultivate the international competitiveness of our students and equip them with the ability to be international exchange students. Our purposes include cultivating students’ ability to join international collaborative projects (e.g. Erasmus+, Southeast Asia exchange student program, and dual degree program) and obtain international licenses (e.g. Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Civil Engineering). Through all English teaching, we also look forward to improving the international competitiveness of our faculty and staff.
- To promote long-term collaboration in dual degree program: Recruiting graduate students from different countries is an import-based internationalization. In the meantime, we also promote export-oriented internationalization by signing dual degree programs with other schools in different countries. For example, in 2018 the College of Engineering of NYCU signed dual doctoral degree program with Tohoku University, and in 2020 our department signed dual degree program with the Department of Structural Engineering of University of California San Diego. We also expect to see more cooperative projects in different fields in the future. In addition to the faculty-level cooperation between the two parties, the research of the joint degree students is also important. The cultivation of international assets is the key to promoting long-term dual degree cooperation.
