ACHIEVEMENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS AT THE SECOND STAGE OF THE SPROUT PROJECT
IN 2020

The overall goal for the second stage of Higher Education SPROUT Project (the “Project”) in Meiho University (the “University”, “MU”, “We”) has been upgraded from the first stage of the Project “MU RICH” to “MU ENRICH”. In this stage, we focus on cultivating long-term care talents and being the lead for the professional examination of food safety. The Project is divided into four main aspects, teaching, publicity, school feature and social responsibility, with illustrations as follows:

Taking Teaching as the Core

The main purpose of this aspect is to implement teaching innovation and enhance teaching quality, with several achievements are as follows:

1. Enablement of Practical Job Skills and Leading to Professional Licenses Acquirement

• 25 students participated and passed a clinical internship programme with Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and came with full scholarships and job appointments
• the pass rate of National Registered Nurse Examination reached to 91% for Nursing graduated students

2. Enhancement of Teaching Quality

• 13 groups of teacher learning community for education elaboration with 27 lesson plan outcomes, 23 applications submitted to Teaching Practice Research Programme in 2021
• the “UCAN” system worked through diverse questionnaires that is related to curriculum and job preferences to understand students’ demands and adjust the gap between existing programme and exact requests, leading to future career

3. Featured Programmes

• the featured microcourse as a chapter in a book, presenting in the way of workshop for students, it provides chances to genuinely experience and leads to spontaneous study and educational expansion

Making Resources More Public

The main purpose of this aspect is aim to present productivity and effectiveness of the university development, with several results as below:

1. Under the Teach Solicitude Learning (T.S.L) plan (i.e. student aid), the part-time working hours of student have been gradually reduced by 28.3% (2019:10.9%) of student population while the attendance in classes has been significantly escalated to 98.3% (2019:75%) in 2020. It represents that financial stress from students could be literally relieved and participated more in classes instead.

2. For teaching assistant and peer tutoring programme, it handled a record of 485 students in 2019. After tutoring, it has an obvious progression by around 75% for student who is being tutored.

3. The aboriginal centre handled a record of 177 indigenous students in a lecture, cultural ceremony and field study, in order to have a better understanding for succeeding and recognising tribal cultures.

4. Since our campus is located on the outskirts of town, it could be disadvantageous for recruiting great teachers, therefore we were seeking for professional teachers with a fixable payment

Developing University Features

The main purpose of this aspect is aim to develop with its university features and combine with student’s professionals and social responsibility. In this section, we focus on food safety, long term care and international competition, with several results below:     

1. Food Safety:

• a professional cross-field team for food safety tutoring is formed by teachers and students, promoting the updating plan of local industry and considering “S.A.F.E” (S for Service, A for Assurance, F for Food, E for Electronize) as the main focus for technical assistance, increasing product values and opportunities of academia-industry collaboration

2. Long-term Care:

• around 53 students trained and passed the license requirement for physical fitness in elder
• students irregularly visiting elders in local communities with diverse workshops and group activities

3. International Competition:

• 26 and 66 students participated individually in English and Japanese seminars, meanwhile we encourage international companions for learning, in which students could effectively explore new cultures and languages
• forming an international work team for assisting International students and encouraging students for learning the second languages
• Establishing mandarin centre and be responsible for cultural and language exchanges

Fulfilling Social Responsibility

University Social Responsibility (the “USR”) is a core philosophy of a university development that engaging with the society to support social, environmental, technical and economic evolution. We stress social responsibility based on the USR project, which allow universities to engage into regional industry and move up value chain, even lead to city development. Through our activities and coursework, we are helping to lead the way to a more sustainable world. This section aims to local culture, elder citizens and food safety with diverse assisting programmes, which expects to complete holistic education in communities and effectively promote community development for senior citizens, with some explanations as follows:

1. Food Safety

• mass spectrometry learnt by teachers and students for fast screening of pesticide residues

2. Being the Advocate

• for regional development and revitalization in several towns and areas

3. Talent Cultivations

• nearly 60 students participated in promoting the plan of talent cultivation in Biology, New Agriculture and Internet of Things
• inspire creativities and start-up thinking for students by lectures from professionals in different fields to broaden the horizon

4. Industrial Upgrading

• The aquaculture in Taiwan is facing market competition and resource shortage, requiring new breeding techniques and enhancing product supply chains. Through biology techniques, we assist for industrial upgrading for aquaculturists