National Tsing Hua University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Career Development Center of NTHU cooperates with the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau, Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Department of Labor Affairs, Hsinchu City Government to recruit talents on campus job fairs via official documents. This cooperation has been providing job opportunities not only for NTHU graduates but also for the community to engage with companies, NGOs, government agencies, etc. to seek for decent jobs to achieve economic growth and social well being.

The National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities (NAPCU) (https://www.napcu.org.tw/index.html) was founded on Sept. 9, 1999. Community colleges in Taiwan have been a part of achieving educational and social reform via the private sector. The mission of community colleges is to advance knowledge and foster civil society.
Community colleges aim to extend the learning subjects out of conventional ivory towers and allow the general public to access what had long been enjoyed by a privileged few. Community colleges provide a setting for self-growth through learning to be self-aware, knowing others, and understanding modern society for all adults without discrimination.

After founding the first community college in 1998, community colleges have been established throughout the island in the following decade. The universalization of community colleges has launched a movement of adult higher education. Through constant shared reading, critical thinking, and discussions, community colleges, local communities, and local citizens can all work together to improve the civic literacy of the general public and eventually create a new culture of a civics-minded society in Taiwan.
NTHU hosts the Green Pine Community College sponsored by Hsinchu Government and works closely with the NAPCU in the following collaborations.
1. To promote the building of a learning city
2. To implement the sustainable development goals of civil society
3. To develop multiple channels for the general public to participate in public affairs

NTHU partners with TCWAU to promote clean water supply for Hsinchu City residences due to the risk of polluted water intaked from TouQian River. Green Pine Community College has been long-term concerned about the issues related to the quality of tap water supplied to the Greater Hsinchu Area. Both advocate the reroute polluted wastewater from intake points of the river. We are also pushing to formulate a policy to separate irrigation channels from drainage channels and drinking water channels from drainage channels. In 2019, with the advocacy of local citizens and NGOs, we initiated a campaign for a local referendum on supplying clean drinking water to Hsinchu residents--a step forward in the goal of sustainable utilization of water resources.

The collaboration has worked on the following:
1.To take a progressive approach to promote the education of sustainably using water resources.
2.To develop a series of plans for actions to resolve water issues.
3.To oversee the government’s policy relating to water issues and provide the authorities with advice based on the facts and scientific evidence.
(https://www.facebook.com/hsinchu.drink)

NTHU library worked with Asus Foundation, a foundation established by Asus Corporate, a Global Electronic Company established in Taiwan, to distribute used computers retired from the University Library. These computers were reconditioned and donated to charity organizations to distribute to low-income and rural villages in Taiwan. In 2020, 70 computers were given rebirth under this program.