We are moving into an era of uncertainties. The long-held ideas such as globalization, liberal international order, and global governance have been cast into doubt recently. More critically, the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 also takes us into an uncharted water. Against such backdrop of a new era, we need a new educational paradigm where economy, international relations, management, politics, and technology are all interwoven into a comprehensive web of knowledge for tackling various issues facing us today. It behooves us social scientists and humanities scholars to forcefully respond to the challenges arising from such an era. Inspired by the London School of Economics and Political Science, we join forces with National Tsinghua University to create the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science (TSE) in which first-rate experts and professionals will be created to lead the world of ideas.

Objectives

A New Model for Higher Education

TSE represents a new model for higher education in Taiwan and also aspires to make contributions to the international education. There are following critical elements:

Educate international talents to be forward-looking and multidisciplinary

TSE welcomes international students from all over the world. Through our designed curricula, our students will be trained to be forwarding and multidisciplinary. They will be forward-looking because they are encouraged to identify what is missing in the existing research. They will be multidisciplinary since their training will be problem-oriented and composed of insights from different disciplines to begin with.

Promote international education and research on sustainable development

TSE promotes collaborations in both education and research with our international partners. Our international faculty provides a solid basis for such new model of higher education. Especially, we are especially interested in the global research in sustainable development. In addition to academic research, our faculty members will also contribute to the international policy community and solve problems with our colleagues around the world.

Establish a think tank on Taiwan’s political economy

Located at the bub of Asia, Taiwan, TSE will take the full advantage of our location and establish a think tank where our scholars can present their research and make their voice heard by Taiwan’s policy communities. This will substantially enhance the impact of the school.

Create a new model for international higher education

Furthermore, we will also provide resources for well-established international scholars to make TSE their home. In an era of high international mobility, institutions of higher education all over the world need to find an effective way to make contributions and tap into the pool of international talents. TSE will make itself one of the important hubs for international talents.

Research

Centered around the core idea of sustainable development, the research championed by TSE will be predominantly interdisciplinary. We encourage the research that is not confined by any particular academic field. Our faculty members will work closely with each other to solve real-world problems. In other words, we not only produce cutting-edge knowledge, but also provide policy suggestions to governments in the world.

Teaching

For our prospective students, we have following goals:

The Idea of Sustainable Development

Students will be required to learn how to make the world more sustainable and strike a fine balance between sustainability and development. Through our classes, they will acquire the skills for conducting analyses from a variety of different angles. Such training will prepare our students for their future challenges in their careers.

Interdisciplinary Study

Furthermore, while our students have their intellectual backgrounds before coming to TSE, each of them will be trained to be one with interdisciplinary knowledge through our classes. 

Grand Vision

TSE’s pedagogy is based on an important idea of making students see the forest and not simply the trees. We will also invite world leaders to visit our school so students will have opportunities to see how such idea is personified.

Leadership

In addition to the academic life, our students will also receive training for leadership. The world needs ideas for solving problem. What is equally critical, however, is that it also needs people to implement them. As a result, leadership is the kind of virtue we hope all of our students can have. At TSE, students will all have opportunities to learn how to be a leader.