History

The Center for General Education traces its history to “Common Courses” program in 1980. It was organized in a series of academic seminars. In 1985, the “Common Courses” became an administrative unit, which was on an equal standing with other academic departments. After nearly a decade of development, it gradually expanded to include various study areas and was renamed “Center for General Education” in 1992. The Center has become an independent teaching and research unit, responsible for developing, planning, and implementing the general education curriculum. 

This kind of curriculum restructuring was the first among universities in Taiwan. There were a number of tertiary educational institutions followed our lead at the time, marking the University's pioneering approach to general education in Taiwan.

To provide a holistic curriculum for our students, the Center implemented a core curriculum since 2001. In 2015, the “Common Education Committee” was renamed “Tsing Hua College.” After years of development, the Center is now a second-tier teaching unit, and belongs to “Tsing Hua College.”

Mission

Our mission lives up to the University's motto, "To strive for self-discipline constantly, to embrace social responsibilities." The Center aims to nourish students with emphases of body-mind balance, sympathetic understanding, and the essence of living for the common good. Below is our mission:

1. Nurturing students’ self-learning ability and diverse interests. 
2. Emphasizing both tradition and modern, covering the scholarship from humanities to hard sciences, and encouraging innovative explorations in these fields.
3. Promoting dialogues between globalization and local cultures, and advancing the understanding of multiculturalism, social care, and civil responsibility.
4. Equipping students with up-to-dated knowledge and implementation skills, and nurturing them to become responsible citizens.

In keeping up with the mission described above, the Center has designated 6 dimensions of competence that are to be realized by the general education curriculum. The 6 dimensions of competence are: 1. Self-awareness, expressions & communication; 2. Logical reasoning & critical thinking; 3. Scientific thinking & reflection; 4. Aesthetic & humanistic literacy; 5. Information technology & media literacy; 6. Diverse views & social practices. 
Synthesizing the above competence and knowledge, the Center is determined to provide high quality education so that our students will be able to attain the 4 core qualities, namely humanistic literacy, scientific thinking, aesthetic literacy, and civic responsibility. 

Development Directions

The Center continues to contribute to general education with the following objectives:

1. To explore and expand the diversity of general education. 
2. To promote inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental collaboration on generation education.
3. To explore new forms of teaching and innovative pedagogy.

Director

Ng, Chon-Ip (2024.02 ~ present)