Be close to the industrial pulse,OIT lights up the advantages of technical schools.

        According to the analysis of the Ministry of Education Statistics Office, affected by the trend of sub-replacement fertility, the number of students in 108 academic years in Taiwan dropped to 643000, a sharp decrease of 54000 compared with that in last academic year. The decline continues for 9 consecutive years. According to the courses, due to the decrease of students, entering a higher school is easier, the proportion of general subjects is increasing year by year, and the number of students going to comprehensive high schools, learning practical skills courses and seeking continuing education is shrinking rapidly, which is undoubtedly a severe hit for technical colleges and universities that rely on vocational students. However, in such a severe environment, the enrollment rate of Oriental Institute of Technology has been maintained at more than 90%. In this "cover story", President Huang Maoquan was invited to share how the school can continue to polish its brand with the advantages of practical operations.

        

        Establishing core advantages in distinctive fields

        

        Located in Banqiao for more than half a century, there are 4400 students in the Oriental Institute of Technology. It is a middle and small-sized school. Although it is small, it is "exquisite". Thanks to the diversified industrial resources of Far Eastern Group, OIT has three distinctive fields:

        

        1. Information and communication technology

        

        At the early stage, only Department of Electronics was established in the school. In order to cultivate more talents in telecommunication with FET, teachers of Department of Electronics went to Sweden, Malaysia to get training and trained FET engineers after they came back. Even many FET engineers were recruited directly from school. Therefore, the communication group and Department of Communication were gradually established. President Huang Maoquan pointed out: “in addition to Department of Communication, Department of Information Management is closely linked to cloud technology. In response to the 5G era, new equipment was introduced, and teachers from FET were invited to personally lead the students in making the projects. The various practical operations that keep up with the times create success in enrollment.

        

        Since the development in the field of Information and communication technology, OIT has gradually established its own characteristics and R & D energy, planned information and communications industry module and provided industry testing service. The trained students can assist the manufacturers in actual measurement, which increases the opportunities for the students to understand the industry and the market demand. At the same time, OIT makes use of the resources of the laboratory, cooperates with the industry to develop plans and offers training courses for talents in the industry to expand the scope of teaching.

        2. Health care

        

        The health care field extended by the Department of Healthcare Administration and Department of Nursing is the second strength of Oriental Institute of Technology, and the important partner behind it is the adjacent Far Eastern Memorial Hospital. At present, there are about 25 projects produced by collaboration between industry and school every year, promoting the development of health education services, medical knowledge sharing platform and medical information internet of things (IOT). In this field, cross-specialty teachers will also lead students to develop integrated medical cloud information system, mobile physiological information monitoring system and cross domain integration of medical and information technology. In the future, research and application will also be carried out for different biomedical electronic problems to encourage students to interact closely with medical and nursing personnel and industrial technology research and development. President Huang added, "Students of OIT can not only go to the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital for internship during the semester, but also directly stay in the hospital after graduation. The Far Eastern Memorial Hospital even provides bonus, seniority retention and other excellent measures to attract talents. Last year, more than 30 graduates chose to work in the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, achieving the goal of seamless integration into the workplace. "

        

        3. Textile industry

        

        Far Eastern Group started from textile industry. As the oldest school under the group, Oriental Institute of Technology always shoulders the responsibility of cultivating textile talents. "We are actively building the only cradle of talents and characteristic institutions with a complete textile industry chain. At present, we have planned relevant industry modules such as material / polymer, fiber, fabric design and clothing design. We have also promoted senior students to have an internship in relevant industries for one year to increase their practical ability and willingness to invest in the industry," Huang said. "Based on 24 North Textile Industry Alliances, Oriental Institute of Technology actively expanded interaction and exchanges with related industries at home and abroad to improve research and development energy and design capacity.

        

        Mutual benefit of industry and school and cultivation of talents for practical operation

        Technical and vocational colleges have always attached great importance to the cultivation of practical skills. Oriental Institute of Technology even introduced equipment similar to or equivalent to the actual production. By increasing the number of hours of courses and actual operation, students can grow with the industry and they can connect with the market when they practice in the senior year. More than 60 million yuan was spent in 2018 (50 million yuan from Ministry of Education subsidy)in the "functional fashion textile production line base" which has added 749m2 of field for practice. And three production lines of knitwear production line, textile digital printing production line and functional clothing were built with a total of 52 equipment altogether, which greatly improve the skills of teachers and students, and expanding the supply chain of cultivation of textile / clothing professionals in Taiwan.

        

        In the spirit of "taking from society, using for society", President Huang often makes good use of the "functional fashion textile production line base" to serve the local area. Recently, due to the severe novel coronavirus pneumonia, Oriental Institute of Technology was invited by the Municipal Government of New Taipei to provide technical guidance for teachers and students of New Taipei Changshu International Middle School and jointly designed the mask cover that can be collected. "We have obtained the authorization of the National Palace Museum. With the equipment of textile production line, we transferred the image of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" to the cloth and made it into storage bag to increase the collection value. This cooperation not only proves the practical ability of Oriental Institute of Technology, but also embodies the social responsibility of universities.

        

        In addition to the "functional fashion textile production line base", in recent years, since eSport industry has flourished, this year, OIT joined the "Starlight project" of the eSport Alliance of Industry and School, and cooperated with Gigabyte technology to build a "prospective multimedia technology laboratory". It planned a series of interdisciplinary courses to cultivate increasingly competitive talents in the eSport industry by combining multimedia applications such as eSport, online game design, with AI image recognition, AR / VR, 5G ultra-high-speed network audio-visual communication and other technologies. President Huang further explained that "in addition to the introduction of advanced equipment, we also hire well-known teachers in the industry, including many engineers from FET, hoping to strengthen collaboration between industry and school. "

        

        Supported by affiliated enterprises of FEG, Oriental Institute of Technology can fully implement the teaching concept of "combination of theory and practice", and diversified internship opportunities become a major feature of the school. President Huang always urges students to complete credits before the junior year and reserve time for the senior year for internship. "Early connection with enterprises helps students to confirm the career direction during the semester and achieve the integration of learning and practice". "

        

        On the other hand, OIT often arranges senior executives in the industry to communicate with students face-to-face, sets up customized courses, introduces co-teaching with the teachers in the industry, and introduces the results of the project into the innovation courses to participate in exhibitions or competitions with cross domain special achievements, improve the visibility and technology transfer opportunities of patent works, further attract more manufacturers to cooperate, and create mutual benefits between the industry and school and win-win.

        

        At present, Oriental Institute of Technology has 170 cooperative partners, including 20 Far Eastern Group affiliated enterprises, which has been widely recognized in Taiwan, mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, etc. According to the statistics of President Huang, "in 2016, the amount of hours of internship in the whole school was about 210000 hours a year, and now it has reached 610000 hours. At that time, the average number of certificates gained in the whole school was 800-1000 a year, and now it has also increased to more than 2000. As for the subsidy of Ministry of Education, only more than 6 million yuan was granted in that year, while more than 50 million yuan was granted last year, which is an increase of 8 times. As a whole, great progress has been made in the research of teachers' papers, patent research and development, as well as in students' licenses and competitions. It is not easy for a small and medium-sized school. "

        Take root to promote technical and vocational learning

        

        Despite the strong advantages of Oriental Institute of Technology, President Huang is still worried about the impact of sub-replacement fertility. He started the plan of expanding students early. "We have been committed to strategic alliance with high and secondary vocational schools in the region for many years, so that students have more understanding of our school, and then their willingness to have further study in our school will be improved. In addition, the second Technology Department has also formed an alliance with colleges, especially nursing colleges, so as to continue the purpose of college students choosing to study in the original school and finishing the courses of the university."

        

        In fact, Oriental Institute of Technology has implemented the "expansion of high and secondary vocational schools strategic alliance plan" for many years. Every year, teachers and students of high and secondary vocational schools are invited to participate in the plan in the form of teachers’ workshop, students’ workshop and project cooperation. In 107 academic years, other alliance partners such as Tatung High School and National Jui-Fang Industrial High School also joined. President Huang took the National Jui-Fang Industrial High School as an example, "in promotion of the new curriculum policy of technical and vocational education in 108 academic years, we cooperated with National Jui-Fang Industrial High School to carry out cross school / cross discipline / cross field curriculum study. Under the guidance of the teachers of the center for general education of our school, we made the juniper waste produced in the woodworking practice course into a practical "juniper essential oil antibacterial disinfection hand washing", which can not only increase the sense of achievement and fun of vocational college students, but also strengthen the professional image of Oriental Institute of Technology. "

        

        In addition, President Huang also held a free camp during the summer vacation to extend the practical learning to elementary school students. The courses include: robot programming, 3D printing, APP Inventor programming and other science and technology related topics. On the one hand, it can make the school become a public welfare platform connecting the community, on the other hand, it can continue to create the characteristics and values of technical and vocational schools, and cultivate potential students in a longer term.

        

        All walks of life were taken by surprise by the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak this year. Even schools must postpone the beginning of the term and implement online learning. From this outbreak, President Huang felt strongly that higher sensitivity and quick response are needed in the rapidly changing environment of Taiwan's higher education. In the face of fierce competition, the Oriental Institute of Technology has been striving to upgrade itself into a University of science and technology in recent years. It is expected to change its name as soon as in August this year, which will open a new page for future interschool exchanges and students' rights and interests in studying. As President Huang said, "no matter in administration or teaching, educators must constantly think about how to keep pace with the times. Only by thinking ahead can they lead the school's sustainability development. 」