On September 8th (‘23), National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) and the National Experimental Senior High School at Pingtung Science Park (NEHSP) signed a strategic alliance memorandum to formalize their joint commitment towards academic development. NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang and NEHSP Principal Chih-Wei Chen signed the agreement at the Second Meeting Room in the NPUST Administration Building, with teachers and administrative members from each school in attendance to witness the event. The two parties also took some time to discuss and plan-out some of the professional academic projects they will be cooperating on in the future.
NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang said: “NPUST serves as an advisory committee member for the Pingtung Science Park and has participated in many construction projects at the park even back to when it was in its planning stage. One of the main pillars of development at the park is smart agriculture and medicine. Here, the strengths of our College of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, and College of Engineering are brought together for the development of botanical medicines, animal vaccines, and biotech medical materials. In the future, these resources will also be used to teach special courses at NEHSP and help them become one of Pingtung’s top high schools”.
NEHSP’s principal, Chih-Wei Chen, expressed that “from the planning of the school’s new campus, and the borrowing of classroom space at Tajen University, to the recent recruitment promotion work, NPUST has provided great assistance. NEHSP is a feature school planned by the Executive Yuan and will be operational in 2024. It will need to borrow from NPUST’s abundant academic resources as it develops special courses in smart agriculture and medicine. In the future, as teachers are recruited, we will also need to rely on the NPUST Center for Teacher Education to assist with the professional review process”.
NEHSP is the first national experimental middle school established in Kao-Ping area and is affiliated with the National Science Council (Executive Yuan). The school comprises a bilingual department, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school. It will officially begin student enrollment in February, 2024 with classes starting in August. Based on the strategic alliance, the children of NPUST faculty and staff will be given admission as Pingtung Science Park “park students”. However, they will still need to meet the admission qualifications to be enrolled at the bilingual department. With the new strategic alliance in place, NPUST will be launching two mutually beneficial cooperation projects in the near future. The first, which is the “Space Technology” popular science project, will be conducted by a research team led by Professor Hudson Hsu of the NPUST Professional College. Together, they will help NEHSP develop aerospace-related courses and organize popular science activities. The second project is the “Teacher Training USR” project. For this, Professor Pao-Nan Chou of the Teacher Training Center will be responsible for planning courses designed to assist secondary teachers at NEHSP with their professional development and technology-integrated teaching capabilities.
