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At the prestigious 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) Asia Summit, held on April 22 at the Macau University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University (NTU) received the Outstanding Support for Students Award, marking its first-ever entry and victory in the THE Asia Summit competition. NTU is also the first university in Taiwan to have received this honor.

The annual THE Asia Summit and Awards, launched in 2019, is aimed to recognize innovation and impact in higher education across the region. This year, over 500 submissions were evaluated by an international panel of judges—including experts from Harvard University, the University of London, and Tohoku University—to select 80 finalists from 10 award categories. NTU emerged as the sole winner in its category, outperforming such prominent institutions as the National University of Singapore and seven other shortlisted universities.

INT System: A Student-Centered Framework for Personalized Future Learning

In particular, NTU received this award for its innovative INT System, which is centered on three pillars: Illuminating, Navigating, and Transforming. The INT system integrates the services of the Office of Academic Advising, Field Expertise Modules, and Flexible Bachelor’s Programs to guide students in clarifying their chosen academic and career paths, while encouraging them to undertake interdisciplinary learning and pursue personalized degree pathways.

According to Vice President for Academic Affairs, Hung-Jen Wang, the INT System is a flagship initiative under NTU’s Future University Project, launched in 2019. This award, he said, recognizes and spotlights Taiwan’s growing leadership in higher education innovation. The judges commended NTU for its learner-centered approach, its integration of personalized advising with modular curricula, and its pioneering flexible degree structures.

Wang noted that NTU’s Office of Academic Advising has served nearly 3,000 students to date, and recently launched the “Illuminating Cards,” a unique tool that presents advising principles in a practical, user-friendly card set. NTU currently offers 270 Field Expertise Modules, with an 80% participation rate among departments. One-third of NTU’s Class of 2024 earned a specialization certificate, demonstrating the students’ ability to deepen and broaden their learning across disciplines.

NTU has also implemented flexible degree programs, including six College Bachelor’s Programs and the University Bachelor’s Program, in which 92 students are now enrolled. The latter program has been presented by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education as a model for cross-disciplinary education reform. NTU has also published six “NTU Model” handbooks to share its innovative practices with other universities nationwide—inviting further collaboration and dialogue on the future of higher education.