School Organization

YunTech offers higher education in the education service industry. It is under the jurisdiction of the Technical Vocational Division of the Ministry of Education and is a national technical college, so there is no board of directors. The organization rules provide one President, who shall manage the school affairs comprehensively, take responsibility for school affairs development, and represent the school externally.

Three Vice-presidents shall be established to assist the President in handling school affairs. There were no major changes to the organization or its supply chain during the reporting period.

Heads of Departments

Highest Governance Unit – School Council

The school is a national technical college without a board of directors. As such, the school council is its highest authority. According to the school’s organization rules, the school council is the highest decision-making organization in determining important school affairs. The chairman of the council is the school president, and the council members include the representatives of academic and administrative directors, teachers, researchers, employees, and other related personnel, workers, or students. The council is responsible for reviewing school development plans and budgets, organizational regulations, and various important regulations; the establishment, change, and suspension of educational affairs for departments, institutes, departments, and affiliated institutions; as well as student affairs, general affairs, research, and other important matters on campus. The council also discusses teaching evaluation methods, committee or task force resolutions established by the school council, meeting proposals, or issues proposed by the president.

The term of office for the school council representatives is one academic year except for the academic and administrative supervisor representatives, whose term of office is based on their positions.

The “School Development Committee” is formed by the administration and academic unit directors, the teachers’ representatives, and convened by the school president to promote and review the school development operation. From August to September each year, the school president convenes the supervisor consensus camp for the first and second-level supervisors and deputy supervisors for administrative and teaching units. The goal is to reach a consensus among all school supervisors on the school’s future development direction, pass on the experience through exchanges between old and new supervisors, and construct YunTech into an educational environment conducive to talent development. The mission for 2021 is to fulfill the vision of “becoming an internationally renowned university featuring innovative teaching and industry connection” by aligning teacher and student developments with economic, environmental, and social demands. We aim to make outstanding contributions to local and global welfare; to create campuses that are innovative, intelligent, friendly, and sustainable; and to be ranked among the top 100 universities in Asia and the top 1000 universities worldwide.

To implement its mid-range development plan and execute the Plan-Do-Check- Act (PDCA) gradual improvement mechanism, YunTech’s school affairs development is extended into five parts according to the school governance principle. They include academic administration; education administration; administrative support, energy conservation, and carbon reduction; industry-academia cooperation; and international cooperation and exchange. Under the Top-down procedure, the six leading units and their related divisions collaborate to develop management and examination index values, target values, and short- and medium-term development plans. The Bottom → up evaluation procedure executes regular examinations to achieve benefits. It is ultimately supplemented by audit and internal control to achieve the school governance visions and goals.

In addition to continuing to strengthen the school’s basic operational efficiency and effectiveness, YunTech will also focus on the deep cultivation plan for higher education in the short term and respond to national development policies, industrial technology needs, globalization trends, and the needs of school affairs development in the medium term. The goal is to timely adjust the program content to achieve schoolwide consensus and develop a policy to pool the collective resources. We also aim to enhance YunTech’s competitiveness and set the school into a model of a pragmatic and practical university of science and technology that focuses on the “students’ adaptive development, teachers’ interdisciplinary cooperation, application-oriented R&D, as well as international influence in technical and vocational education, practical problem solving, and basic research.”

YunTech has actively participated in interschool, intraschool, and public associations in response to the rapid changes in the higher education environment. They include the Green University Union of Taiwan, Yunlin County Government- Academia Cooperation Contact Platform, Ministry of Education’s Regional Industry- Academia Cooperation Center and Industry-Academia Connection Executive Office, Academia-Industry Consortium for Science Parks in Central Taiwan, Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan (IEET), Association of National Universities of Science and Technology of Taiwan, RICELOHAS, Central District Technical College Intercollegiate Alliance, Taiwan Higher Education Society, Association of National Universities of Taiwan, Taiwan Academia Industry Consortium, Academia-Industry Consortium of Taichung Software Park in Taiwan, Yunlin National University System, 10th UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10), and the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative proposed by the Japanese government and UNU-IAS. The strategic alliances between these organizations can help to integrate resources, exert complementarity, share resources to achieve mutual benefits, and establish interschool-friendly alliances to improve YunTech’s educational quality and academic standards.

Risk Analysis

Six External Factors of the Overall Educational Environment

YunTech is deeply involved in education and is dedicated to teaching, energy R&D and sustainability development. The school has maintained long-term connections and cooperation with industry and private organizations and has high teaching R&D strength. We have also won the Ministry of Education’s teaching excellence, the Model University of Science and Technology Program, and the Higher Education Deep Cultivation Program subsidies to become an index school in the domestic technical vocational system. However, due to the school’s short tenure and remote geographical location, we have integrated aspects of teaching administration, academic administration, administrative support, industry-academia cooperation, and international cooperation and exchange to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of future development conditions.

Response Actions

In light of the 6 major factors mentioned above, YunTech has been devoted to sustainable education as well as academic and industrial development in the past few years under teaching excellence, exemplary HKUST projects, and the latest deep higher education cultivation trend. In light of the six external factors mentioned above, YunTech has also conducted a SWOT analysis as the cornerstone of the school’s future development conditions. In terms of coping actions, medium and long-term approaches are included in the key consideration items for the mid-range school affairs development plan for 2022-2026. The current mid-term plan has been developed under the five key strategies (specialization, academicization, Industry-academia collaboration, internationalization, and specialization). To develop YunTech into “an internationally renowned university with innovative teaching and industry connections”, the school has implemented a rolling adjustment mechanism for school affairs development in terms of its schools, colleges, and departments (Top-Down-achievement aspect and Bottom-Up-knowledge aspect). This report will also explain YunTech’s 2021 response strategy for the six external factors.

Internal Control System

YunTech developed the “Key Points for Establishing the Internal Control Task Force” to strengthen and ensure the continuous and effective operation of the internal control system, improve governance efficiency, administer according to the law, and prevent financial malpractice. A meeting is held every semester to review the implementation of internal control in each unit. The internal control project team reviews the internal control system operation project report for each business unit and provides suggestions for improvement to reduce operational risks. The Auditing Office was established as a dedicated audit unit, and the “National Yunlin University of Science & Technology Internal Control Audit Team” was established to assist each unit in monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the internal control system.

YunTech’s internal audit unit shall implement a self-supervision mechanism, urge each unit to achieve administrative goals, and improve operational efficiency. The audit plan was created using a risk coefficient table that was compiled for various control operations of each unit based on the operation items determined to have high-risk levels.

There were 21 audit project items in 2021, and 20 improvement measures or specific reform suggestions were proposed. We shall continue to track whether each unit has completed the improvement items in 2022. To strengthen the internal control operations, the Auditing Office assisted the management team in conducting an on-site property inventory review and supervised the maintenance team in 2021. The Auditing Office also participated in the engineering, financial, and labor procurement operations handled by the General Services division to improve auditing efficiency. To improve the internal control system performance, the Auditing Office also reviews the internal control self-assessment work performed by each unit of the school to ensure smooth system operations.