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THU General Education

Outside  General Education, also known as Liberal Arts Education, which has been a focus in the mainstream universities in USA and Japan, is now greatly valued in all universities in Taiwan. In fact, THU had been pioneering and one step ahead in advocating General Education at its founding phase. On April 6 in 1956, President Beauson Zhen (Zhen, Yue-nong) announced at the fourth University Council that “The fundamental policy and goal of education at THU is General Education. I expect all colleagues to support and research on it.” At the sixth University Council on January 11, 1957, the concept of General Education was confirmed that, “General Education enables students to have a comprehensive understanding of the nature, the society and life; it is there to promote their basic knowledge about the culture and to develop their holistic personality…; general aptitude and specializing capability are complementary.” Right afterwards, the school submitted an application to Ministry of Education for approval to practice General Education (renamed as General Aptitude Education according to the suggestion of MOE), which officially started from 1956 academic year. In addition, such a goal is also clearly stated in THU Anthem: Exercise both your mind and body and become professional as well as holistic. All in all, General Education is an important part of THU education in its founding stage.

Established

   In 1992 Ministry of Education decreed that General Education courses have to be required courses for all universities. THU thus established General Education Center on February 1, 1994 under the subsidy of “ MOE Project for Improving Humanities and Social Sciences Education,” which was launched in 1993.  

   To be in line with the interpretation of the Grand Justices Council on May 26, 1995, which abolished the common required courses in the universities, THU amended the regulations for common required courses at the 108th University Council Meeting on April 12, 1997, which stipulated that, in addition to Chinese, Foreign language, Information Technology, History and Civil Culture, all students must take 11 credits from three domains out of the following 5: Humanities, Science, Social Studies, Life Science, and Management. The “Center of Common Learning and General Education” took the responsibility for promoting the teaching and planning of General Education courses. After years of implementation and improvement, the visions of THU General Education are delineated as follows:

  1. To lay equal stress on the general and professional education
  2. To design General Education courses step by step
  3. To immerse general education as a common goal for all instructors
  4. To consolidate general education as the inheritance that distinguishes THU.