2024 NTU Commencement

National Taiwan University (NTU) held its 2024 Commencement Ceremony on May 25th at the Sports Center. This year, a total of 11,020 students graduated, including 5,313 undergraduates, 5,182 master's students, and 525 doctoral students. NTU President Wen-Chang Chen encouraged graduates to advance with curiosity, dreams, and passion while ceaselessly enhancing professional skills, putting them into practice, and paying back to society with gratitude.

President Chen further highlighted the challenges posed by the overabundance of information and the frequent inconsiderateness of online comments, which can cause anxiety. He stressed that developing resilience, as measured by the Resilience Quotient (RQ)—the ability to face setbacks, challenge oneself, and overcome difficulties—will be more crucial than IQ or EQ in addressing future challenges. He regards such personal resilience to be an essential trait of character that future university education must address.

President Chen then referred to the “tackling the difficult part” attitude upheld by Garmin Co-Founder Dr. Min Kao. Garmin followed that spirit to develop the first FAA-approved GPS system in the face of obstacles and successfully turned the company around. That story entails that mental resilience is key to success, as when you face hardship and hold up, you will “bounce back” even stronger. Finally, President Chen encouraged students to seek opportunities to engage and work with people of different backgrounds, characteristics, and skill levels so that they can together figure out ways to conquer difficulties and thrive.

The commencement speaker this year was Prof. Tasuku Honjo, the 2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and a distinguished professor at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study. In his address, he encouraged NTU graduates to nurture their curiosity, which he considers to be the foundation of all endeavors. Prof. Honjo further urged them to bravely explore the unknown in whatever field they would enter.

Representing Taiwanese graduates to speak was Chia-Chia Lee from the Department of Political, while Akiei Satomi, who majored in Chinese Literature, spoke on behalf of international graduates. In her speech, Chia-Chia Lee shared that during her studies, she faced conflicts and uncertainties between academic pursuits, extracurricular activities, and whether to change her major or study abroad. Although she held on and graduated, she often wondered about the path she didn't choose during these four years, questioning whether she hadn’t fully taken advantage of this wealth of treasures. However, after talking with classmates and friends, she realized that as long as one wholeheartedly walks their chosen path, the entire world can be the canvas, lively painted with every passing moment. All challenges eventually form into dazzling pearls shining through one’s life journey. She encouraged her fellow graduates, saying, "Let's bravely step out of NTU."

Speaking on behalf of the international students, Akiei Satomi of the Department of Chinese Literature shared his experiences as a Japanese student in Taiwan. He expressed his sincere gratitude for the acceptance and kindness of the Taiwanese people, which led him to be more open and confident. Through studying abroad in Taiwan, Akiei adapted to “being different from others” and learned to define himself in the process. Satomi encouraged his fellow graduates to define their own life journeys in unique ways.

One of the highlights of this year’s ceremony was the introduction of NTU’s first "University Interdisciplinary Bachelor" graduate. Ita Rai, who had originally majored in Geography and Environmental Resources, became the first graduate of NTU’s University Interdisciplinary Bachelor's Program (UIBP), with a focus on "Spatial Policy and Planning Science." This initiative symbolizes NTU's commitment to the "Future University" policy and its ongoing efforts in educational innovation. In memory of this historic first, a copy of Rai’s diploma will be stored at the Gallery of NTU History.

Ita Rai shared his path toward NTU’s first-ever University Interdisciplinary Bachelor's degree. He mentioned that the bachelor's program allowed him to extend his studies beyond his original major at the Department of Geography, College of Science by incorporating courses from the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and other courses in social sciences. He applied spatial information technology to various areas, including railway transportation, East Asian studies, and public opinion analysis. By integrating these interests, he followed his passion to develop a new interdisciplinary curriculum module, "Spatial Policy and Planning." On that foundation, Rai wrote a bachelor's thesis on railway grade separation, which won him his thesis won the NTU Bachelor's Thesis Award. This outcome is a fine example of the incredible professional depth and expansive scope the interdisciplinary learning program can achieve.

The University Interdisciplinary Bachelor Program (UIBP) enables autonomous learning by breaking disciplinary boundaries. Since the program’s introduction in the academic year 2022, the students can design their own curriculums with courses in various fields and graduate with a UIBP degree. The program has attracted 50 enrollments since implementation; the areas chosen include a combination of human-computer interaction, international commerce, and business psychology, showcasing the students’ desire for autonomous and interdisciplinary learning and the ability to innovate and create.