Education for Sustainability: Policies and Planning
NUTN aims to cultivate graduates with professional competence, ethical integrity, and a commitment to service. Through foundational core courses, general education, and interdisciplinary credit and micro-programs, the University supports students' professional development, holistic education, and life skills.
To foster a culture of sustainability on campus, NUTN integrates sustainable development into the curriculum and provides diverse learning and continuing education pathways in response to educational policy and social needs.
Integrating the SDGs into Course Syllabi
Beginning in the second semester of Academic Year 2022, the E-course syllabus system added a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) field. Instructors identify the SDGs addressed by each course, helping students understand how course content relates to sustainability issues.
Diverse Learning Pathways
Through general education, interdisciplinary credits, and micro-programs, NUTN combines professional learning with holistic education to cultivate lifelong learning, innovation, practical competence, and social responsibility.
Interdisciplinary and Practice-oriented Learning
Academic units are encouraged to reform curricula in line with educational goals, disciplinary strengths, and faculty expertise, emphasizing the integration of learning and practice to strengthen students' sustainability literacy and practical capabilities.
Sustainability-related Course Outcomes
Sustainability-related Courses
996courses
Share of Sustainability-related Courses
83.21%
Most Frequently Addressed Goal
SDG4Quality Education
Course Implementation by College
In the second semester of Academic Year 2024, more than 80% of NUTN courses were related to one or more SDGs. The College of Humanities had the highest proportion of SDG-related courses, followed by the College of Science and Engineering. The College of Humanities also recorded the highest share at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Teaching Innovation and Interdisciplinary Learning
Project-based Course Modules
Under the Guidelines for Grants to Colleges, Departments, and Centers for Developing Project-based Course Modules, NUTN encourages academic units to create distinctive interdisciplinary curricula. In 2025, three integrated project-based course modules received funding to advance curriculum reform and teaching improvement.
Teaching Practice and Pedagogical Innovation
Through internal teaching-practice incentives, NUTN encourages faculty to move beyond one-way lecturing and innovate in pedagogy and instructional materials, strengthening students' active learning and problem-solving abilities.
In response to educational change in the AI era, NUTN promotes interdisciplinary integration and technology-enhanced teaching, helping students develop digital tool proficiency, AI literacy, and interdisciplinary learning skills.
Education for Sustainability: Featured Cases
NUTN uses real-world settings as learning environments, integrating cultural preservation, educational equity, public participation, inclusive education, and local revitalization into the curriculum. This approach enables students to understand complex issues, collaborate across disciplines, and put sustainability into practice.
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals
From Artisans' Stories to the Stage: Cultural Translation through Performing Arts
Students from the Department of Drama entered artisans' workplaces to document life stories through interviews and field notes, then transformed accounts of apprenticeship, craft transmission, and personal conviction into museum performances.
Cultural Preservation
Field-based Learning
Interdisciplinary Performance
SDG 4 Quality Education
Bridging Distance and the Urban–Rural Divide: NUTN's Digital Learning Companion Network
Through the Ministry of Education's Digital Learning Companion Program, NUTN students serve as university learning companions, providing one-on-one online support and in-person interaction to strengthen the motivation and confidence of children in rural communities.
Educational Equity
Rural Student Support
Service Learning
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
Five Years of Continuous Tribal Partnership: Bringing Indigenous Culture into Education
Since its establishment in 2020, the Indigenous Student Resource Center has led faculty and students to the Liuchongxi community in Baihe, Tainan, each year to participate in the Taivoan night ceremony. What began as cultural observation has grown into a relationship of trust and collaboration, deepening cultural understanding through sustained engagement.
Indigenous Culture
Tribal Partnership
Cultural Diversity
SDG 4 Quality Education
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
Beyond the Resource Classroom: Preparing Professionals for Inclusive Education
The Department of Special Education offers a practicum on teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Pre-service teachers work in mainstream classrooms and at Huiming School for the Blind, learning to provide support before difficulties arise and developing the collaborative skills needed in inclusive education.
Inclusive Education
Special Education Support
Teacher Education
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Building Youth Critical Thinking through Local, Economic, and Animal Welfare Issues
The Department of Public Administration and Management uses the World Café dialogue model to create an open and equitable discussion environment in which students learn to listen to diverse viewpoints, analyze public issues, and collaboratively explore possible solutions.
Public Participation
Deliberative Dialogue
Youth Empowerment
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
From the Classroom to the Field: Practice-based Training for Sustainable Management
The Department of Business and Management brings local challenges in Syuejia—such as saline groundwater, dependence on transferred irrigation water, and agricultural reuse—into the classroom, enabling students to examine the links among resource constraints, local industries, and sustainable innovation from a production and operations management perspective.
Local Revitalization
Sustainable Management
For additional information on education for sustainability policies, the distribution of SDG-related courses, and teaching innovation outcomes, see Section 4-1 of the 2025 Sustainability Report。