July 31, 2015
To National United University Chemical Engineering Freshmen:
Congratulation! You are going to be a student of Department of Chemical Engineering. On behalf of faculty and staff of Department of Chemical Engineering at National United University, I sincerely welcome you to join our big family!
In order to promote the development of higher education locally, University, with teachers, students, and local people’s efforts, was approved to upgrade its status from a junior college to a comprehensive university on August 1, 2003, and later became National United University (NUU). Currently, NUU has six colleges, including College of Engineering and Science, College of Management, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Design, and College of Hakka, taking up 65 hectares of campus areas. The second campus in Bajia, taking up 56 hectares of area, was carefully planned with macro beauty by NUU and started construction since 2006. So far, the construction is being completed, and except College of Management and College of Design, other colleges have moved in and started using buildings in 2014. Taking traditional, cultural, ecological, high-quality, sustainable, creative, and international aspects into consideration for planning, Bajia campus provides a learning environment for holistic education. The areas of new Chemical Engineering Department building, which is in use since July 2010, take up 6,500 square meters with 5 stories. The vast campus enables all freshmen to apply for living in on-campus dormitories. Particularly, female students can apply for on-campus dormitories from their first to fourth year in NUU. Free shuttle buses are offered to all faculty and students to transfer from old and new campus. For students who are in their second year of study or above, detailed information about accommodations for rent is available on NUU website. Since 2006 academic year, NUU has received grants of Teaching Excellence Project and Regional Teaching Excellence Project offered by Ministry of Education for consecutive eight years. The grants help improving teaching and learning environment in NUU considerably. Moreover, NUU establishes scholarships to award outstanding students to attend NUU. Students who are qualified can apply for scholarships in the beginning of the semester. Please refer to NUU website www.nuu.edu.tw for further information.
The objective of Department of Chemical Engineering is to “nurture outstanding chemical engineers, strengthen theory, practice, and innovation, and train dedicated gregarious and technological professions.” Educational goals for such an objective are to cultivate engineering professions with chemical engineering knowledge, practical skills, and professional ethics. In addition to learning professional knowledge and practical skills, students are nurtured with character, civic, and cultural and humane dispositions in order to enhance students’ dedicated and professional work attitude and make students value work ethics and shoulder responsibilities of caring society.
To tie in Taiwan’s technological development policies and satisfy the needs of relevant industries, Department of Chemical Engineering is dedicated to applying chemical engineering expertise topplied material technology, biochemistry technology, and fine (green) chemical engineering,seizing the opportunity to promote industry-academia cooperation, improving techniques and production processes of chemical engineering industry in the new century. According to the development of chemical engineering in the new age, needs of industries, and expertise and research areas of our faculty, Department of Chemical Engineering focuses on three main areas to develop research and practical capacities in an hope to show characteristics of each area.
Currently, Department of Chemical Engineering has 16 full-time faculty and 2 full-time assistants. Classes and degrees offered includes two classes of Day Division Undergraduate, one class of Night Division Undergraduate, one class of Master’s program, and Doctoral program in material and chemical engineering. There are many work-study opportunities in the department, and we consider hiring students with active and positive attitude to provide enthusiastic service. Students in Day Division programs are usually recommended to intern in outstanding companies in Miaoli area, such as ChangChun PetroChemical., Co. LTD and Taiwan Fertilizer Co, LTD and even received job offers later. Furthermore, Department of Chemical Engineering Student Association is an autonomous association run by students. Many events, such as cross-department freshmen camping, field trips, welcome and farewell parties, and end-of-the-year parties, are taken place every academic year to enrich students’ college life. Besides, the department has various sport teams to increase students’ exercise opportunities and help build team spirit. It is hoped that students can actively participate in sport teams and other events to show your support. In 2014 academic year, NUU received grants from Ministry of Education to promote course streaming project; that is, junior level courses are divided into academic courses and practical courses for students to select so that students can start to plan their future career. Practical courses are job-oriented, including some innovative courses, such as industry-academia internship, factory practice, and guest speakers from industry. Also, students are recommended to intern in domestic and international companies and factories (So far, nearly one fifth of students joined this course.). Faculty is encouraged to participate in industry-academia cooperation to facilitate the seamless connection between industry and academia, which creates a win-win situation by helping industries find competent employees, strengthening students’ competitiveness in job market, and enabling NUU to prepare students with expertise. Academic courses are planned with the intention to broaden and deepen professional courses for students who plan to study in master or doctoral programs. These courses aim to train research and development professionals. Course diversion project helps connect industry and academia (support student interns), create employment opportunities for graduates (activate nation’s economy), and nurture chemical engineering professionals effectively.
Department of Chemical Engineering is one of fundamental departments (Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department Electrical Engineering ) to nurture professionals for industry. Students have a broad choice of careers. In addition to traditional petrochemical industry, students can also work in other traditional industries, such as shoes, textile, and transportation materials; focused industries, such as semiconductors and panels; and emerging industries, such as sustainable energy, optoelectronics, biotechnology, and delicate industry. These industries need chemical engineering professionals to take positions of process engineers, research and development engineers, environmental health and safety engineers, and quality assurance engineers. Students can also start their own business. Besides, continuing study is another option for students. Every year, about 30% of NUU undergraduates receive admission from graduate programs in public institutions. According to Survey of Employment Rate of New Graduates, conducted by Business Weekly and 104 Corporation in 2015, the employment rate of NUU is ranked 36 out of 147 public and private universities. While Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, and Department of Industrial Design are selected to be top majors with high employment rate, NUU’s Department of Chemical Engineering is the only one selected to be golden departments among other universities with Department of Chemical Engineering. Such results show that our curriculum design and planning enables our students to make good connections with industries, be more familiar with industrial trends, and apply their knowledge in jobs. As for academic performance, students are prepared with core capabilities, such as professional ethics, cultural and humane capacity, social responsibility, and abilities to identify and solve problems.
Every year, our department will conduct survey research to supervisors of our alumni in workplace. Most received comments are very positive with high satisfaction, excluding foreign language proficiency. Therefore, we hope that students can put more efforts in learning foreign languages. In addition to required English courses, students are encourages to select other foreign language courses, such as Japanese, German, and French. The more one is immersed in an environment of learning foreign languages, the more one is prepared with abilities to connect with the world. College life is the most important stage in life, no matter whether it is to develop professional knowledge or establish interpersonal relationships. During your four years of college life, your learning attitude and time management will be the key turning point of your life. NUU and our department endeavor to provide diverse learning resources in a hope that you can seize every opportunity to actively explore knowledge, keep yourself positive, and elevate your life to a higher level. Last but not least, wish you have an enriched and colorful college life.
Sincerely,
Feng- Jin Liu
Department Chair
Department of Chemical Engineering
National United University