Department of Arts and Design
☉ Colleges & Program Overview
Disciplines and Spaces
Fine Arts (graduate degree included)
1. Our staff is equipped with multiple expertise, although the teaching process may be strict at times, but the learning environment is open and free. Students have received international and domestic awards and is valued by the art community. Our students are often the recipient of many competition, this includes the National Art Awards, the Taipei Art Awards, the Kaohsiung Award, the Hsinchu Art Award, and the Nanying Award.
2. International and domestic exchange exhibitions are actively held. Visiting art events abroad have also expanded our students’ perspective and established new visions. In recent years, the number of graduate students have increased greatly, the number of applications and onsite registrations reached the highest rate compared to other universities in Taiwan. We are also very eager to contribute a new possibilities towards the development and requirements of the four education fields in the modern era.
Design (graduate degree included)
1. Our staff members are all equipped with professional experiences. The programs for our undergraduate and graduate students are well planned with supporting facilities which establishes a perfect teaching system. We emphasize the application of materials, digital support, and the theoretical and practicality aspects of form design. With the investing efforts into the development of art experiments and cultural innovation to lead the current trend, we are committed to cultivate creative designs and designers with practical production skills that will become a strong force in the industry.
2. The students from the design division are highly valued in the international and domestic craft and design industrial community, moreover, they are often the award recipients of the Taiwan Craft Competition, Young Designers’ Competition, Hsinchu Art Award, Formosa Jewelry Design Competition, etc. In the recent years (2011-2015), 150 students have won various awards from all over the world (15 winners for international awards, 135 winners for domestic awards).
Theory (Master’s degree only)
1. For half a century, our staff, who are theory expertise, have fostered numerous art educators all around Taiwan, they are referred as the driving force in our education system during postwar period. For the past five years, due to the change of the art education system, the need to acquire a Master’s degree has come to a new low, therefore our theory discipline had transferred its research focus from “art education” to “modern/contemporary art and aesthetic culture.” This shift of focus become one of our unique features in the field, standing out from all other top universities.
2. Our theory division takes in 8 students each year, our call for application in autumn accepts 4 to 5 students, and we only take 3 to 4 students for the entrance examination in spring. The staff members specializes in art psychology, art history, photography & media arts, and aesthetic experience. Their standards in teaching and supervising students are held to the merits of this department’s traditional virtues; they not only teach from the heart, but also maintain a close teacher-student relationship. We also encourage those who do not have any experiences in art practice to apply, together we can find new cross-disciplinary research possibilities.
Teaching and Practice Spaces
1. Teaching Spaces
(1)The Chinese Painting Building / a three-story building
NHCUE Artist Space, Ze Gallery, Chu Dao Gallery, the interdisciplinary experiment space, multimedia workshop, auditorium, department office, 2D classrooms 1, 2&3, aesthetic salon, reading room, graduate art workshop, discussion room, student association, and the staff research offices are located here.
(2)The Craft Building / a four-story building
The three-dimensional modeling workshop, wood workshop, ceramic workshop, glass workshop, printmaking workshop, Sensory lab and metal smith workshop are located here.
(3)The Painting Building / a six-story building
The NHCUE Artist Space 2, Lee Tze-Fan Memorial Art Gallery, audio-visual classroom, color vision research lab, digital media-assisted craft product design laboratory, painting workshop, graduate design workshop, and graduation project workshop.
2. Practice spaces:
Only graduate students and students in their final year will be allocated their own practice space.
Multidiscipline professions (professional licensed skills)
Application preparation / Q&A
1. What do the department emphasize the most? (autobiography, academic grades, licenses, project proposal or award performances)
Our department divides students into two disciplines, art and design, your application forms which includes your autobiography, academic grades, licenses, and project proposal are all the basic references for our staff. What we think is important, is your ability to paint, make and design, especially the quality of your work and award performances. As a result the presentation of your artwork portfolio will be the most significant material to apply for our department, then the next in line will be your autobiography, academic grades and project proposal.
2. How can I stand out from all the other applicants and get accepted?
Your artwork portfolio will need to delivery your “creative thinking process” and “aesthetic goals,” although the quality of your work is important, your practice, sketch, and process explanation sometimes can tell us more about your artistic qualities. Furthermore, your portfolio needs to show your thoughtfulness, please avoid simple binding methods. You should clearly and precisely articulate you content to stress your merits, in the meantime, you need to explain why you want to apply for this program and show your strong learning desire and motivation.
As for your autobiography, you should emphasize on your character that can show us you belong here, you can tell us aspects regarding your creativity, how you handle pressure, explain your art-related experiences in practice, your background etc.
3. What kind of mistakes do people make that really can harm their chances to get in?
There are no certain reasons that scores can be deducted, however, we have received too many flashy applications that do not precisely deliver the applicant’s abilities, such as an exquisite portfolio cover with superficial content or including too many repetitive and similar artwork that cannot display the uniqueness of the applicant. Please avoid careless portfolio binding, complicated content, disorganized format and layout, blurry images, etc.
4. What other advice or reminders can you give to applicants?
Make sure to clearly present your background, interests, abilities regarding your past drawings, craft, and industrial design experiences. Remember to express your will to learn and strong motivations. You should also learn more about our developmental goals, curriculum, staff and facilities to help yourself precisely articulate your future plans.