NCKU as first university to offer a Circular Economy education program in Taiwan.
Starting from Spring semester 2018, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) will offer a new education program on Circular Economy. This is in response to the Tsai-Ing Wen government who set Circular Economy as one of her 5+2 spearhead strategies. Taiwan wants to create a more sustainable economy, with a smaller environmental impact on natural resources, as well as less dependence on importing resources. The circular economy focusses on reducing, reusing and recycling with an interesting business model.
The NCKU Circular Economy program is named ‘Circular NCKU’ and it trains students to become the future workforce for companies and governments to innovate from the traditional ‘linear economy’-thinking towards ‘circular economy’-strategies. Competences on circular economy are relevant for any field, therefor the program is shaped as a 15 credit extra-curricular certificate open for students from any master degree. “This also creates the opportunity for a multi-disciplinary program in which students from various masters learn how to collaborate with each other and come to actual integrated solutions, benefitting people, planet and also profit”, says NCKU visiting expert Bart van Bueren. Bart has been teaching at NCKU at 7 different departments over the past 5 years. He is originally from the Netherlands; a country famed of its pioneering into the Circular Economy.
“We also decided to engage more actively with the international student community. As this Circular NCKU program can easily be obtained in one semester, we warmly welcome any foreign exchange students to join this program to obtain the certificate. One way to make that possible, is to ensure all courses are provided in English.” , says prof Hsiao-Wen Wang, the Associate Vice President for International Affairs, who also worked on preparing this program. “NCKU is already offering various courses that include elements for Circular Economy-strategies, these courses are now embedded in the new Circular NCKU program. Additionally, we offer and introduction course to start, and a ‘pilot’ to proof student’s progress.”, prof Wang continues: “The multidisciplinary approach makes it also interesting for companies to collaborate by offering real cases of how their products and services can become more circular.”
Find more on the Circular NCKU program on www.circular.ncku.edu.tw.
The NCKU Circular Economy program is named ‘Circular NCKU’ and it trains students to become the future workforce for companies and governments to innovate from the traditional ‘linear economy’-thinking towards ‘circular economy’-strategies. Competences on circular economy are relevant for any field, therefor the program is shaped as a 15 credit extra-curricular certificate open for students from any master degree. “This also creates the opportunity for a multi-disciplinary program in which students from various masters learn how to collaborate with each other and come to actual integrated solutions, benefitting people, planet and also profit”, says NCKU visiting expert Bart van Bueren. Bart has been teaching at NCKU at 7 different departments over the past 5 years. He is originally from the Netherlands; a country famed of its pioneering into the Circular Economy.
“We also decided to engage more actively with the international student community. As this Circular NCKU program can easily be obtained in one semester, we warmly welcome any foreign exchange students to join this program to obtain the certificate. One way to make that possible, is to ensure all courses are provided in English.” , says prof Hsiao-Wen Wang, the Associate Vice President for International Affairs, who also worked on preparing this program. “NCKU is already offering various courses that include elements for Circular Economy-strategies, these courses are now embedded in the new Circular NCKU program. Additionally, we offer and introduction course to start, and a ‘pilot’ to proof student’s progress.”, prof Wang continues: “The multidisciplinary approach makes it also interesting for companies to collaborate by offering real cases of how their products and services can become more circular.”
Find more on the Circular NCKU program on www.circular.ncku.edu.tw.