In an era where uncertainty is the new norm, transdisciplinary education goes beyond simply “taking a few more courses.” It is about how universities reorganize knowledge networks and cultivate students’ capacity for action. National Taiwan University’s Trans-disciplinary Bachelor Degree Program (TBD), under the School of Innovation and Design (D-School), drives this mission through long-term co-learning partnerships with Kyushu University’s School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation, Kobe University’s V.School, and the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s Live Well Collaborative.
A significant milestone was reached on October 25, 2025, when ZaShare, the Association of Innovative Transdisciplinary Education (AITE) and TBD co-organized the inaugural Education Innovation Taiwan (EDiT) expo at the Taoyuan Convention Center. This landmark event, held alongside the TRANS-Edu 2025 Conference, focused on the themes of educational innovation and transformation. By bringing together diverse stakeholders, the expo served as a premier platform to showcase Taiwan's robust capabilities and leadership in the global education landscape, extending the dialogue beyond academia to a wider community of changemakers.
The TRANS-Edu 2025 summit highlighted four critical lenses:
- Organizational Reform: Prof. Johan Lauwereyns (Kyushu University) emphasized that transdisciplinary education requires institutional backing. He proposed a “laddered” model of international learning—transitioning from online to on-site—designed to be affordable, credit-bearing, and deeply embedded in the curriculum.
- Pedagogical Innovation: Cases from non-departmental programs and capstone courses demonstrated how design thinking bridges fieldwork, entrepreneurship, and self-reflection, shifting the faculty’s role from lecturers to community facilitators.
- Cross-Cultural Learning: Experiences from Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan illustrated that "transdisciplinary" is inherently cross-cultural. The primary challenge lies in "translating" different disciplinary cultures and integrating student feedback into iterative curriculum design.
- The AI Challenge: While AI accelerates prototyping and makes learning processes more visible, it also underscores that “future readiness” cannot be outsourced. Empathy, collaboration, critical judgment, and ethical reflection remain the core human capacities that must be nurtured.
For TBD, TRANS-Edu and EDiT are more than events; they represent a movement to transform experimental programs into a scalable, international infrastructure for learning. We invite NTU’s partner universities to explore co-taught modules and exchange collaborations, ensuring that transdisciplinary education can effectively respond to the complex challenges of our time.