Physical, Virtual, and Financial Resources
Financial Situation
Table II.2 and Table II.3 present the sources of income and uses of funds for our college from 2018 to 2022. The main sources of funding are tuition and miscellaneous fees, university subsidies, subsidies from the MOE’s Overall Development Award program, and subsidies from the MOE’s Teaching Excellence Project. Our university has gradually received increasing amounts of funding from these two MOE subsidies. For more information on the use of these funds, please refer to the “Resources to Meet Strategic Initiatives” section.
The main sources of funding for the colleges are the university budget, the budget for the overall development plan, and MOE’s budget for its Teaching Excellence Program. During 2018-2022, the amounts received by the colleges have gradually increased. The university budget is mainly used for faculty support and improvements to college administration. Faculty support refers to the salaries of faculty members, grants for them to go overseas to attend conference, awards for their research, and plans to encourage them to increase their intellectual contributions. Improvements to college administration are undertaken in line with the strategic development of the college administration and involve the management and operation of general academic affairs. The overall development plan is to assist in the development of each department and the nurturing of their individual characteristics. These include curriculum reforms, tutoring students in preparation for certification examinations, and upgrading computer information systems.
Remaining teaching funds focus on improving teaching quality, such as the appointment of teaching assistants for the three fundamental courses in Accounting, Economics, and Statistics; promoting the freshman project and CDIO; integrating service learning into the curriculum; encouraging faculty members to prepare innovative teaching materials; and awarding grants for faculty members to develop innovative courses.
Other than the college’s university budget, the budget for the overall development plan, and the Ministry of Education’s budget for its Teaching Excellence Program, there are also foundations set up by the Alumni Chapters of each department. The funding is mainly from alumni donations and contributions. The Department of Accounting, Department of International Business, Department of Public Finance, Department of Cooperative Economics and Social Entrepreneurship, Department of Business Administration have respective dedicated accounts for alumni donations, and each department’s collection is used to assist with and support its operations and growth.
Table II.2 Income Distribution by the business unit through AY2018-AY2022
Unit: USD
Table II.3 Table II.1Total of all uses of operating funds by the business unit through AY2018-AY2022
Unit: USD
Challenges in Funding
According to national statistics, tuition and miscellaneous fees account for 60% to 70% of private universities’ total revenues. However, due to the restrictions set by the Ministry of Education’s Regulations for the Collection of Tuition and Miscellaneous Fees by Colleges and Universities, the university’s ability to increase tuition and miscellaneous fees is limited. In addition, the university is being affected by the declining birth rate, which increases the risk of decreased revenue. In response to the impact of the restrictions on tuition and miscellaneous fees, the university has taken the following measures: (1) increasing funds generated from industry–academia cooperation by offering courses in partnership with businesses, utilizing corporate resources to develop alternative sources of income, and recruiting more international students; and (2) establishing industry–academia cooperative relationships by collaborating with businesses or other organizations to provide more internships and cultivate more industry-needed talents, thereby attracting more students to apply for the university.
Resources to Meet Strategic Initiatives
To align with our college’s development goals and cultivate professional talents capable of participating in social and industrial upgrading, transformation, and sustainable development, our institutional budget is mainly used to enhance teaching quality, improve the teaching environment, subsidize faculty and staff participation in international conferences to promote international exchanges, and provide research incentives to assist in improving teachers’ intellectual contributions. For the main strategic measures and expected funding sources of our college’s established plans, please refer to Table 2-1.
Physical Resources
(1) Renovated Study and Research Space
The 500-square-meter space on the 7th floor of the Business Building has been rebuilt into a comprehensive and bright learning environment. Approximately 200 seats are available for graduate students of the College of Business and Finance to use freely according to their needs. We look forward to bringing forth a different learning atmosphere and changes in student interactions in light of the renovated environment. We believe that the renovated space will provide a better learning space for more than 700 graduate students. In addition, we maintain the classroom equipment on each floor on a regular bas
(2) Harvard Case Classroom
The classroom focuses on a curved theater-style design, providing a space for full interaction between the instructor and the learners. The classroom creates a learner-centered learning environment in which participants can construct comprehensive decision-making capabilities through the discussion and learning of diverse cases.
(3)FCU–MIC Smart City 5G Lab
The Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center is located on the north side of the Shuinan Intelligent City and is set to be completed in the near future. As a new landmark in Taichung that is close to the FCU campus, the College of Business and Finance has established a 5G Innovative and Business Application Research Center to cultivate students’ 5G exhibition capabilities to help industries exhibit their products and services through online and offline combinations. The laboratory was donated by Fanson System Technology Co., Ltd., which provided the smart city 5G communication system and research and testing equipment and systems. Both parties collaborated to develop 5G communication-related technologies for applications in smart cities, smart manufacturing, and other fields. The college is responsible for offering two courses, (a) AR Exhibition Planning Creative Application and Practice and (b) Innovative Financial Design Practice, to cultivate students’ practical abilities in planning and designing exhibitions in the intelligent field.
(4) New Virtuosi Hall
The design echoes the eco-friendliness and low-carbon sustainability of negative architecture based on the design by the world-famous architect Dr. Kengo Kuma from Japan, who also designed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Main Stadium. The overall appearance of the building blends with the landscape and is a series of clustered spaces. The aesthetics of life are naturally cultivated through subtle influences.
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Virtual Resources
(1) Provide Virtual Resources that Students Need, Including Software
The Office of Information Technology at FCU provides various software for students, including software related to document processing, operating systems, virus protection, university administration, development tools, and mathematics and statistical analysis. The office offers a legal campus software service portal, including licensed and open-source software, which can be downloaded and installed on personal computers for learning purposes. In addition, the university library provides various electronic databases, such as TEJ database, Datastream, ScienceDirect, and EBSCO, to meet the research needs of faculty and students.
(2) Online Self-Learning Courses
Our university provides various digital self-learning courses, including massive open online courses (MOOCs), small private online courses (SPOCs), and fundamental courses for each department. A total of six social science courses and 11 business management courses are recorded by our college’s teachers, with an average ranging from 500 to 1,800 views per course, accumulating approximately from 3,000 to 20,000 total views. For details on the course outlines, teachers, and views.
SPOCs are subject course online videos recorded by our university’s teachers for exclusive use by our college’s faculty and students. Five courses have been recorded by our college’s teachers.
Our college’s full-time teaching assistants have recorded videos to explain the quiz or exercises of fundamental courses so that students can repeat their learning after each weekly class.
(3) AWS Cloud Computing Courses
FCU has introduced the Amazon’s AWS program. In order to achieve Goal 2, which is to focus on cultivating talents in smart business innovation and sustainable development research, our faculty has collaborated with well-known companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Rockwell to offer AWS-related courses. We are the first educational institution in the Greater China region to become a training partner with AWS.
Since 2020, we have offered 12 courses, with a total of 326 students enrolled. The passing rate is relatively low and requires high abilities and experience from the candidates. In the exam, it is necessary to be familiar with various AWS services and technologies and have practical operation and problem-solving abilities. Therefore, in order to pass the AWS certification, candidates need to fully prepare and practice to enhance their skills and knowledge. Currently, only 2 people in our college have passed the AWS certification, while other classmates are working hard to prepare and hoping to achieve success in the exam.