University social responsibility

Universities are increasingly recognizing their role as key players in the domain of social responsibility, particularly following the World Declaration on Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century drawn up at the Conferences on Higher Education organized by UNESCO in Paris in 1998 and 2009. As an expression of civic leadership, social responsibility encompasses the contributions that organizations can make to sustainable development, societal needs, and environmental challenges. Consequently, higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide now embrace sustainability issues and engage their campuses and communities in such efforts, promoting deeper public engagement and advancing ethical principles. University social responsibility (USR) is now being understood as a significant element of students’ personal and professional development as engaged global citizens, and universities are well positioned as incubators of innovation to seek solutions for global issues such as those outlined in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.      

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has recognized the importance of universities as contributors to local sustainability efforts and has been promoting USR activities since 2018. Between 2019 and 2022, Taiwan USR projects were executed in two phases with the MOE funding 97 universities to carry out 217 projects from the 437 applications received. The Higher Education SPROUT Project exemplifies the positive impact that USR can have in the broader community.

Higher Education SPROUT Project

The Higher Education SPROUT Project was established in 2018 to deepen connections among local HEIs, create global networks, and enhance the quality of higher education through multi-faceted development. Key aims of the project include bolstering the international competitiveness of HEIs and research centers in Taiwan while also supporting students from less advantaged backgrounds. The acronym SPROUT (Sustained Progress and Rise of Universities in Taiwan) symbolizes the beginning of robust growth after sowing a strong educational foundation. The Ministry’s long-term goals for this project include the development of innovative teaching, increased public awareness of Taiwan's higher education, and the fulfillment of USR. Digital technologies are at the heart of Taiwan’s efforts to invigorate both local and international networks in service of addressing global problems within the frame of social responsibility.

Taiwan Tech embraces animations and virtual reality for learning

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), or Taiwan Tech as it is commonly referred to, has led the way in demonstrating the creative potential of digital technologies in fulfillment of social responsibility goals. In the 2021 Higher Education SPROUT Project, the University’s Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education (GIDLE) worked with community elders to document their rich personal histories using digital storytelling techniques that would be engaging for a target audience of junior high students. The stories included audio, video, animations, graphics, and even virtual reality, all of which the students found interesting and valuable. This format provided a transformative learning experience as the youngsters took stock of the accumulated knowledge and unique perspectives of their elders regarding issues facing the community today.

Movable Ink reports that the human brain processes visual images 60,000 times faster than text due to its open receptiveness to pictures, and these assertions were made manifest as Taiwan Tech digital stories greatly impacted the high school students and the community elders alike. Most participants expressed their joy and satisfaction with the project, applauding Taiwan Tech for integrating technology with the traditional art of storytelling, particularly acknowledging the capability of digital stories to capture the attention of up-and-coming generations of digital natives. For them, it was a realization of Jason Ohler’s dream, “I know only one thing about technologies that await us in future: We will find ways to tell stories with them.” The GIDLE project has established a repository of digital stories, a community asset that forms part of a record and can be easily shared and drawn upon as an educational resource. The project created an immersive experience for the participants, earning Taiwan Tech the top award in the University Citizen Award category for the third year running. NTUST now looks to emerging technologies to further leverage digital tools to fulfill USR.

Taiwan Tech students listen to and record narratives from the community elders.

A vision for the metaverse within USR                     

With the successful use of graphics, VR, and animations in the 2021 USR project, Taiwan Tech now joins the global USR network in finding ultramodern approaches to social responsibility service delivery for the digital age. GIDLE scholars are currently exploring future virtual worlds, known as the metaverse, in which social media will be more personal and integrated into daily life. A metaverse is a digital place for people to connect, with the ability to do almost anything from creating art and playing games to creating content and teleporting instantly. This expansive tool has the potential to completely transform the way we engage with the Internet and with each other. NTUST Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education foresees how the metaverse, as a digital space for bringing people together, could be the tool at the center of the next leap forward in USR.