We aim to cultivate a pure mind, a broad heart filled with the desire to purify the world and its people, and professional confidence. Students at MDU inhabit an environment like a manor, a graceful academy. They are not only professional scholars but also people who care about ethnic vitality. They are not only flexible and tactical entrepreneurs but also people who have a taste for art and cultural history. Facing the ever-changing future challenges, students adopt learning methods and abilities that will allow them to refashion themselves as fully competent problem solvers. In terms of life, we hope to cultivate well-versed people in humanism, art, and applied technology. As for aspirations, we hope our students can be taught to use good judgment and wisdom in their thinking.
MDU was born to realize the dream of cultivating the next generation's citizens to be professional, practical, broad-minded, intelligent, and determined. Towards this purpose, we have created a quiet and beautiful campus, integrated programs and resources across departments, employed enthusiastic and responsible professors and implemented an academic-industry liaison system. With these features, a superior educational model has been established. In addition to serving the local community's needs, we also serve the needs of the country and the world.
Our campus is located in the Southern Changhua Plain, where the primary economic activity is agriculture. Because of the location, we can escape from the noise and crowd typically found in cities. The overall campus design is oriented toward humanity and culture. There are classical architecture styles on our campus, accompanied by green landscapes constructed with materials from the original forest from this area. As for the students' character building, we follow the humanist tradition of MingDao High School, which is unique in the Taiwanese education system and has been proven successful. For example, we adopted the platform, which is generally used only for Chinese Studies in Taiwan for the Lectures of MingDao Chinese Studies in 1993. We also created a humanist atmosphere by using architectural styles and ancient sculptures based on Tang Dynasty originals so that students can immerse themselves in the Chinese tradition. Furthermore, MingDao Literature, the only literature periodical for youth in the country, received the honor of being recognized as a superior periodical by the Government Information Office in Taiwan in the years 1977, 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1995. We even widened the whole country's scope by establishing the MingDao Academic Literary Award to foster numerous literary talents.
Qingdao University helps promote environmental reform, takes part in public policy planning, and promotes regional development. For instance, Tianwei Township has developed a sophisticated and professional horticulture industry out of a traditional flower market. Besides, both the one-kilometer long 'Tianwei Highway Garden' and the future Taiwan Suger Farm Resort provide rich educational resources. Therefore, we established the Department of Landscape Architecture to cultivate the talents of landscape design and promote the local industry. For the same reason, we also established the first Department of Post-Modern Agriculture. Moreover, the Departments of Information Communication, Management, and Design and the Graduate Institute of Education can significantly improve the quality of culture and education, which will push the community development forward. We also offer life-long education to achieve the goals.
In response to the future workforce demands outlined in the development blueprint for the country, such as the person needs in management and technological expertise, we have established departments fostering talents in management, practical skill, and high-quality leisure. The curriculum design focuses on practical training. The methods include the use of "case study analysis" to increase students' practical experience. We also require our students to gain credit in "research projects" to give them the project management skills necessary to compete in the real world. Also, students will participate in internships in actual local workplaces to enhance their independent analysis abilities, information processing, group participation, and task coordination.
The creation of MingDao University's vision and self-positioning was based on integrating the following three things: the mid-to long-term development plan to re-coordinate administrative organs, the University's demonstrated achievements thus far, and the objective external trends and challenges facing the University. Qingdao University's earlier strategy was to be a stand-alone college, founded as the MingDao College of Management in 2001, and the initial college-type was to be an instructional institute. In 2007, the MingDao College of Management was upgraded to a comprehensive university's status by the Ministry of Education and renamed MingDao University. With the new name came a new plan to be an instructional and integrated research-oriented institute. In 2010, in response to the threat of climate change to food, water, and energy security, green, organic, and healthy became the new motto. In 2014, due to the dramatic decrease of birthrates in Taiwan over the previous generation, an issue that will strongly impact college enrollment and create new social issues, a shift in higher education vision was needed. While continuing our current projects and building on existing achievements based on the visions of earlier phases, the new administration, taking international trends, technological advancement, and societal needs into consideration, have cast a bold vision for a new direction. Thus, to become a first-tier institute of higher education, our new goal for MingDao University is to promote instructional excellence, diversity and internationalization, and corporate projects.
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