The Times Higher Education Impact Ranking 2020 places TCU 45th around the world on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-Being for All at All Ages
The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2020 was released on April 22, 2020. TCU is in 69th place around the world on SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. TCU was founded by Tzu Chi Foundation, and its faculty members, staff and students have been dedicating their daily work and collaborating with other Tzu Chi affiliates in charity, healthcare, education, and humanistic culture, throughout Taiwan and elsewhere. Since its inception in 1994, TCU has implemented sustainable development practices on its campuses. Moreover, students are guided by their faculty members to team up with other Tzu Chi affiliates, to apply what they have learned to serve others around the world. TCU students are so fortunate that they have many opportunities to expand their international perspectives, while studying here.
TCU was founded in 1994 as Tzu Chi College of Medicine. It is ranked 45 on SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, among 620 universities around the world. Eastern Taiwan, offshore islands and other remote villages have been short of medical professionals. TCU sees the needs, and thus inspires its students to care for the people in those places, by taking action to serve them and enhancing their quality of healthcare. TCU’s impact is quite apparent.
The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings was initiated in 2019, so 2020 rankings is the second one. There are 17 UN SDGs, and in the second edition of the rankings, they evaluate university performance in all of them. A university’s final score is calculated by combining its score in SDG 17 with its top three scores out of the remaining 16 SDGs. SDG 17 accounts for 22 percent of the overall score, while the other SDGs each carry a weight of 26 percent. This means that different universities are scored based on a different set of SDGs, depending on their focus.
President Ingrid Liu pointed out that around 40% of our medical and nursing graduates have chosen to serve in eastern Taiwan, offshore islands or other remote villages. Because of their compassionate efforts, healthcare quality in these areas has improved significantly. Students care about those in need; therefore, other than preparing themselves with skills and knowledge, they are accompanied by their faculty members to attend the needy in remote villages of Taiwan or overseas. TCU looks into the needs of students who come from deprived families or encounter unexpected difficulties. TCU provides a variety of assistance to them, to ensure that they can continue their studies here. In the future, TCU will continue to make solid efforts in carrying out the UN’s SDGs, for the betterment of humanity and sustainability of the Earth.
