Feng Chia University is located at a politically and economically key location in Central Taiwan, which facilitates cooperation with the government and industries. Our university is the first to introduce Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) CDIO framework with Stanford University’s Design Thinking in Taiwan, which helps solve the learning gap between academia and industry. Furthermore, our teachers are fully subsidized for English-Medium-Instruction Courses, Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainable Development Goals related training, which improves the teaching quality sharply. All the efforts we made are highly recognized by students, the government, and industries. Our university has the best and most stable enrollment rate of all private universities, indicating that students are highly willing to devote to innovative education. The Ministry of Education also appreciates what we have done, resulting in a government subsidy for Programs of Excellent Teaching and Top Research Center for several years, which has been the funding source for providing better education. Finally, the performance of our graduates are highly valued by industries, which consequently makes our university graduates the most wanted by enterprises of all private universities.

However, our university still has some weaknesses to address. Many senior faculty members have been retiring in recent years, and young talents are easily poached by national universities, thereby resulting in an aging faculty. Furthermore, faculty members’ research impacts are limited within academic areas, indicating the need for us to work more on cross-interdisciplinary research. Our campus space is insufficient, and we need more room for teaching and learning purposes. In addition, courses offered in English are also insufficient, leading to relatively fewer international students.

For external environments, there are some opportunities to seize. Adjacent to the Science Park and the Taichung Industrial Park, the industrial clustering effect can introduce corporate resources and jointly cultivate talents and R&D technologies, especially as the demand for interdisciplinary talents is on the rise. The government promotes the New Southbound Policy and the Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program, which could attract more international students, especially when border restrictions are lifted. In addition, with the increasing awareness of sustainable development, the Higher Education Sprout Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education is leading universities to develop university features and undertake USR, which meets our mission.

Our university also faces several threats that should be overcome to fulfill our mission. Taiwan is experiencing a low birth rate period, which makes enrolling new students a significant challenge. Moreover, students are less willing to pursue a master’s/doctoral degree, further exacerbating student enrollment issues. Meanwhile, the tuition has remained at the same level for the past 2 decades, resulting in the costs to run the university increasing annually. This challenge is also reflected in our recruitment policy. Pension plans and research/teaching resources in private universities are at a disadvantage when recruiting talents. For international students, the internationalization of higher education is highly competitive, and the top universities in Asia have better resources to attract students.
 

Since identifying the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the College of Business and Finance, we have employed a USED analysis to find the optimal solutions for the identified weaknesses and threats and make the best use of our strengths and opportunities. 

We have a great location that offers excellent life amenities to attract students. We can also employ government subsidies to initiate more projects promoting academia and industry collaboration to improve teaching quality and attract students. To develop interdisciplinary talents with critical thinking and offer English-Medium-Instruction Courses (EMI courses), Artificial Intelligence courses (AI courses), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related courses to shape students’ core competitiveness. Finally, we will continue to make efforts to maintain our high retention rate to earn students’ trust.

To deal with the challenges of the low birth rate, we are recruiting students and increasing our enrollment rate based on data analyses. To attract students, we are constantly developing the university features, such as excellent teaching that meets business needs, and continuously developing internationalization. For graduate students, we expand on the features of our graduate programs and create added value for them. We are also working to initiate more academia and industry collaboration to obtain financial resources that will enable us to continue attracting outstanding professors with competitive salaries.