Center for General Education

In the post-war period of higher education in Taiwan, liberal education has been an ideal in university education and a direction that many educators in university have dedicated themselves to. In 1981, when Prof. Zhao-Zhong Yu became the president of NTU, he proposed "Liberal Education" as the guiding philosophy for the institution. He once stated, "Having taught at the university for many years, I feel that current university teachings is overly focused on specialized courses, and the students have interests in pursuing higher exam scores. Many students have no intention of exploring various fields of knowledge and are lacking in reflection on life values. As a result, they lack a serious understanding of their personal temporal and spatial positioning, as well as the sense of mission and responsibility." These words reflect the intention behind President Yu's advocacy of Liberal Education. In the past decades, many university educators in Taiwan, including those at NTU, have spared no effort in promoting general education. Taking a broader perspective, as the human society developed into the early 20th century, numerous contradictions and profound issues became increasingly serious and complex. Narrow professional training and one-dimensional thinking are no longer sufficient to reflect upon and deal with such complex and profound problems. Therefore, the importance of university general education becomes self-evident, aiming to give students a broader knowledge base, and guide and inspire them to explore and develop an interest in other disciplines. Through this, the goal is to cultivate a broad perspective and independent critical thinking abilities.

To promote liberal education and holistic education in our university, since President Yu, NTU has undergone years of effort and transformation. The developmental process is outlined as follows:

1. In 1981, President Yu proposed "liberal education" as the guiding philosophy for the institution. This was in response to the early specialization in university education, where students lacked knowledge and approaches beyond their major, hindering their ability to comprehensively grasp the current context of the knowledge. This led to the loss of the university's purpose as a place for integrating knowledge. To address this, NTU established "Promotion of Liberal Education Working Group" in the following year, with Professor Po-wen Kuo as the convener. In August 1983, the group presented "'Thirteen Elective Courses' plan report," categorizing these courses into five major types: literature and the arts, history and comparative culture, social and philosophical analysis, mathematics and natural sciences, and applied sciences. These courses were designed based on practical needs, allowing students to explore other disciplines and apply the knowledge and skills of other disciplines to their own, facilitating interdisciplinary integration. However, due to immature conditions, this plan not only can not be fully implemented but was also discontinued shortly after its initiation.
2. In June 1992, the school council of NTU resolved to comprehensively plan the liberal education curriculum. They established the "Liberal Education Planning Committee" and presented a planning draft in January 1994. Each academic department was given the autonomy to decide whether to participate in this program. However, due to the limited number of participating departments and the failure to reach a consensus, the program could not be fully implemented.
3. On April 23, 1994, the school council resolved to establish the "Curriculum Planning Committee." On March 14 of the following year, the administrative council decided to form the "Liberal Education Committee" tasked with functional mission organization. This unit was later restructured on August 1995, into the functional "Center for Liberal Education." Within this unit, the "Liberal Education Curriculum Planning Committee" was established to continue the planning of liberal education courses for the whole school. 
4. In May 1995, Constitutional Interpretation No. 380 by the Judicial Yuan held that the term "university common required courses" had never appeared in the "University Act." Therefore, the Ministry of Education unilaterally added the term "university common required courses" in its "Enforcement Rules of the University Act," exceeding the scope of authorization granted by the parent law. Substantively, this action also violated the constitutional autonomy guaranteed to universities. As a result, universities were allowed to follow autonomous procedures to re-plan and establish their own common required courses. In accordance with this, NTU established the General Education Committee in April 1996 based on its organizational regulations. Through an additional administrative structure, this committee is responsible for promoting and coordinating matters related to liberal education and general courses.
5. In 2004, the Ministry of Education's University Liberal Education Pilot Program conducted an evaluation of NTU, highlighting that our departments ranked first in terms of completeness and resource abundance among domestic universities. However, despite the longstanding and commendable ideas behind the reform of liberal education, it was evident that the resources, administrative support, and participation invested in the process were insufficient compared to other institutions. Acknowledging the significance of this evaluation report, NTU took it seriously. Consequently, from the academic year 2004 to 2006, NTU underwent a series of innovative activities in the reform of liberal education. The process involved the submission of a reform research report by the General Education Committee, followed by public hearings and seminars, and subsequent revisions to relevant regulations. With the cooperation of relevant administrative and academic units, the newly designed liberal education system was eventually planned and implemented starting from the academic year 2007.
6. To achieve the unified administration of liberal education and enhance operational efficiency, the "General Education Committee" has been renamed the "Center for General Education." It has been reorganized from an administrative unit to a teaching unit independent of NTU. The center has been further divided into the General Education Section and the Liberal Education Section, both responsible for the planning, review, and other related matters concerning the university's liberal education courses.
7. After the implementation of the new liberal education system at NTU, in the academic year 2007, the university underwent a reevaluation of liberal education conducted by the Ministry of Education as part of the "Third Phase of the University Liberal Education Evaluation Pilot Program, Category A." The evaluation report from this assessment stated that "NTU has shown the most significant progress over the four years, with its liberal education demonstrating a transformative performance, creating a considerable gap with other universities." Among the seven evaluated categories, including "Goals and Vision," "Organization and institution," "Teaching and Administrative Resources," "Curriculum Planning," "Teaching Quality," "Faculty," and "Self-evaluation Mechanism," NTU received excellent ratings in six, with a special distinction in the "Teaching and Administrative Resources" category. This recognition underscores the university's commendable efforts in the reform of liberal education.

Since the academic year 2014, the development of the Center for General Education has become more vibrant. This includes the transfer of the Center of Teacher Education, originally under the Office of Academic Affairs, to the Center for General Education. Additionally, several degree programs have been gradually established and are now officially operational. These programs include the Master's Program in Statistics (since the academic year 2014), the Master Program of Sports Facilities and Health Promotion (since the academic year 2016), and the Bachelor Program of International Sports Affairs (since the academic year 2022).

In the future, the Center for General Education will continue its efforts to plan, coordinate, and regularly review the university's liberal course structure. The goal is to ensure that the courses remain current, enrich students' abilities, and establish a model of liberal education suitable for the Chinese-speaking society.