Development history

National Jinan International University was formally established on July 1, 1995, taking root and cultivating in Puli Town, Nantou County. When the school was established, it was set as the development goal of the school to "strengthen the cultivation of talents, enhance the function of overseas Chinese education, balance regional development, and promote international academic exchanges". At the beginning of the establishment of the school, it was given priority to set up a Southeast Asian research center, actively promoted overseas Chinese education tasks and international academic exchanges, and created the characteristics of an international university; afterward, it actively reflected on the local social responsibilities of the university, in addition to setting up the Shuishalian Humanities Innovation and Social Practice The research center also set up the R-Cube youth return-to-home innovative practice course and micro-course (Return for Rural Re-creation) based on rural development topics and social participation teaching methods in the General Education Center. Through research Closely link with teaching and local urban public communities, and work together to develop the development model of "Water and Sand Connecting University City" to play the two roles of local public think tank and talent cultivation incubator. It is based on past experience and considers that the current development of Taiwan's rural areas lacks a talent training mechanism with comprehensive vision and social capabilities. Our school hopes that through the establishment of the "Master's Degree Program in Local Creation and Cross-domain Governance", it can systematically cultivate talents with awareness of rural revitalization and innovative action, and lay a solid foundation for local creation and rural development in Taiwan.

Course Features
Based on the high-level goal of "strengthening talent cultivation and balancing regional development" revealed at the beginning of the school's establishment, the setting of the "Master's Degree Program in Local Creation and Cross-domain Governance" can not only provide domestic returning youth with local identity and action Or for students to learn knowledge, it can also be used as a training ground for Southeast Asian overseas students to return to their hometowns for employment development, and then demonstrate the school's deep cultivation of water and sand, and the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) "Quality Rural Talent Cultivation Site", " The school-running characteristics of the learning field of sustainable urban and rural practical knowledge.

Basic Course Design
It is a learning model for the development of ecological sustainability and local practice concepts that are different from urban values. This program specially offers two compulsory courses of "Development Theory and Development Ethics, Local Creation and Cross-domain Governance", as well as the "Social Practice Research Methods" course based on rural local creation and development practice application.

Issue-Oriented Learning Design
This program takes rural areas as the field of study and exploration, supplemented by interdisciplinary topics such as culture, ecology, industry, and society. Through the design of text reading (theory), practical seminars, and practical courses, it hopes to break away from the traditional framework of the department , Guide students to gradually accumulate the awareness and ability of young people returning to their hometowns to innovate and practice.

Develop supporting learning measures such as "off-campus learning bases, co-working spaces, and hands-on practice"
Connecting with local public communities, through formal courses and multiple off-campus learning paths, to expand students' "cross-domain resource integration and mobile literacy.

Build a common learning circle
With the course office, teaching teachers, students, and the community as the core network, through the construction of a learning community, students' all-round learning support will be improved, and students will be trained to have the concept and quality of cross-border cooperation from experience.

Accumulate research materials on Taiwan's rural development and local revitalization and make policy recommendations
The teachers who are currently participating in this program have been actively involved in research and practical work such as the transformation of ecological industries in rural areas and the promotion of community colleges in recent years. In the future, they will cooperate with students to adopt a master-apprentice system to focus on the culture, ecology, industry, and social care of Taiwan’s rural areas. issues and conduct related research.

educational goals
In recent years, local creation and rural regional development have become a global trend, which not only brought many partners who care about rural development back to work in their hometowns, but also shaped a new local innovation governance movement. For example: Xinbei Three Gorges Ganle Culture and Creation, Pinglin Lanque Tea; Taoyuan Xinwu Buffalo Bookstore; Hsinchu Dashan Beiyue; Taliwu, Yunzhong Street; Tainan Zuozhen Mansion, Houbi Jingliao, Tugou; Kaohsiung Qishantai Qingjiao, Meinong Love Home Association; Pingtung Hengchun Mori Society Site, Donggang River Conservation Association; Taitung Yuan Natural Chishang Rice; Hualien Niuli Community, Wuweiwu, Huiyou Bar, A Grain of Wheat Social Welfare Foundation; Yilan Liangbaijia and other teams. Through the excavation of rural assets and innovative design models, many local economic development models with locality as the basis have been developed.

In the process of this wave of rural regional development, we have deeply discovered that enthusiasm cannot only be relied on, but the understanding of cross-field issues such as politics, economy, society, culture and ethnic groups in rural areas, the construction of community network connections and partnerships, and social The capacity building and application of design are extremely important skills for engaging in local creation and rural regional development. However, looking back on the past development experience of Taiwan’s higher education, the direction of talent cultivation and the establishment of departments are mostly focused on talent cultivation or land use planning for urbanization development. For the cultivation of talents for rural development, the establishment of departments is seldom planned from a systematic perspective. .

It coincides with the advent of the era of local creativity in Taiwan. Local creation needs to inject new blood. The university's USR program takes local connection and talent cultivation as its core tasks, brings students to the field for teaching, and inspires more creative ideas through practice. produce. Just like germinated seeds, when they have an emotional and connection with the land, they are more likely to take root in the land and become a new force driving the development of the community. After four years of university, they will no longer be just passers-by. On this occasion, how to provide students with enthusiasm for rural development with a more systematic learning channel and cultivate their knowledge, attitudes and methods of investing in rural innovation and development is a real way to consolidate Taiwan's local creation, rural revitalization and development, and slow down urban and rural development. Disparities are extremely important issues.

Based on the needs of the times for balanced regional development and the cultivation of cross-field professional talents in rural areas, the educational goal of this program is to cultivate regional revitalization and local creative talents who are passionate about Taiwan's rural development and possess cross-regional governance literacy, knowledge, and practical methods. Overall, the educational objectives of this course are fourfold:

Provide an environment for knowledge learning by partners who are willing to invest or stay in rural development
Cultivate social practice talents who care about Taiwan's rural development and have the ability to solve problems
Develop cross-domain governance knowledge and application skills required for local revitalization and local creation
Constructing an academic and practical model for the development of Taiwan's regional revitalization and local creation learning circle
core competence
For this master's degree program, we have invited scholars and experts from various fields such as local governance, social work, business management, information management, culture and art, tourism and leisure to jointly organize it. The Shuishalian area will be used as the field of action and research, focusing on issues such as rural culture, industry, ecology, and social care, adopting a four-stage curriculum design of basic theory, practical methods, knowledge application, and field practice, and incorporating PBL issues Solution orientation and AI knowledge application are integrated into the course teaching, actively cultivating elite talents for local creation and social practice. In order to build a complete curriculum structure, this master's degree program has a curriculum committee. Each semester, the course regularly reviews and revises the curriculum structure according to industry development trends and program development goals, so that the curriculum can meet market demand and trends. In summary, the core competencies of this course are as follows:

cross domain mobility
social innovation
Practice ability of returning home

It coincides with the advent of the era of local creativity in Taiwan. Local creation needs to inject new blood. The university's USR program takes local connection and talent cultivation as its core tasks, brings students to the field for teaching, and inspires more creative ideas through practice. produce. Just like germinated seeds, when they have an emotional and connection with the land, they are more likely to take root in the land and become a new force driving the development of the community. After four years of university, they will no longer be just passers-by. On this occasion, how to provide students with enthusiasm for rural development with a more systematic learning channel and cultivate their knowledge, attitudes and methods of investing in rural innovation and development is a real way to consolidate Taiwan's local creation, rural revitalization and development, and slow down urban and rural development. Disparities are extremely important issues.

Based on the needs of the times for balanced regional development and the cultivation of cross-field professional talents in rural areas, the educational goal of this program is to cultivate regional revitalization and local creative talents who are passionate about Taiwan's rural development and possess cross-regional governance literacy, knowledge, and practical methods. Overall, the educational objectives of this course are fourfold:

Provide an environment for knowledge learning by partners who are willing to invest or stay in rural development
Cultivate social practice talents who care about Taiwan's rural development and have the ability to solve problems
Develop cross-domain governance knowledge and application skills required for local revitalization and local creation
Constructing an academic and practical model for the development of Taiwan's regional revitalization and local creation learning circle
core competence
For this master's degree program, we have invited scholars and experts from various fields such as local governance, social work, business management, information management, culture and art, tourism and leisure to jointly organize it. The Shuishalian area will be used as the field of action and research, focusing on issues such as rural culture, industry, ecology, and social care, adopting a four-stage curriculum design of basic theory, practical methods, knowledge application, and field practice, and incorporating PBL issues Solution orientation and AI knowledge application are integrated into the course teaching, actively cultivating elite talents for local creation and social practice. In order to build a complete curriculum structure, this master's degree program has a curriculum committee. Each semester, the course regularly reviews and revises the curriculum structure according to industry development trends and program development goals, so that the curriculum can meet market demand and trends. In summary, the core competencies of this course are as follows:

cross domain mobility
social innovation
The content of the returning home practice course
Curriculum Planning
Graduation credits: Graduate students must complete at least 32 credits before graduation and must pass the master's degree examination.
Compulsory: methodology, theory, symposium, dissertation or professional practice report (choose one of the two).
The general social science methods are mostly “quantitative and qualitative” research methods. The methodological curriculum design with rural development as the main axis emphasizes the method of social practice to highlight the characteristics of practical research orientation. "Social Practice Research Methods" is taught in the course.
In line with the purpose of this course, in terms of teaching theoretical courses, two courses, "Development Theory and Development Ethics" and "Local Creation and Cross-domain Governance" will be taught respectively. Among them, the course content of "Development Theory and Grassroots Ethics" will focus on local development theories suitable for Taiwanese society; "Local Creation and Cross-border Governance" will include local population development, long-term care and local aging, schools and society Research on issues such as education, various industries, academia, agriculture and rural areas, ecological sustainability, cultural and historical preservation, etc.
Seminars, 3 credits.
The purpose of this master's degree program is to cultivate practical talents who are committed to local creation and rural development. Therefore, the graduation threshold, in addition to writing "academic papers", can also be selected as "professional practice reports". Dissertation or professional practice report (choose one of the two) with 0 credits is listed as one of the necessary conditions, and the specific form can be discussed and determined.
Compulsory elective: Internship and practice.
In order for the students taking the course to further connect with the practical world, 6 credits and 400 hours are planned in the course (practice time is arranged in Master 1 and Master 2, 3 credits in one semester, a total of 6 credits in one year), and four topics are required (optional) 1) Field practice.
Elective:
Thematic courses are planned in four major areas (culture, ecology, industry, and society). According to the needs of students, choose relevant special courses that you are interested in and develop special courses, or consider the cooperation of relevant teachers and the combination of departmental courses or the credit recognition model.

Graduation
Public sector (high-level general examination, local administrative special examination, appointment of hired personnel)
Relevant government departments at all levels have business units involved in local creation and rural regional development, and they all need civil servants with the knowledge and ability of rural development. The above-mentioned relevant talents are the options for the future employment of the students of this program

Social Enterprise
According to the statistics of the "Social Innovation Platform" organized by the Small and Medium Enterprise Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, as of 2020, a total of 138 social innovation organizations in Taiwan have been included. Such innovative social and economic organizations that use business models to solve social problems are also future employment options for students of this program

Non-profit organizations
In the process of local development, non-profit organizations with social practice missions often play an important and key role, and this part is also the employment option for future students

colleges and universities
In recent years, domestic universities have been actively promoting university social responsibility programs and local industry-university cooperation programs, all of which need to cooperate with different local stakeholders. Relevant staff also need to have the knowledge and ability to cooperate with local communities. This type of work is also an employment option for students of this program