NTU's College of Social Sciences (COSS) is the leading institution in Taiwan's social science research society. Since our inception, we have adhered to our missions to contribute to talent nurturing, academic development, and social impact research.
Many alumni of COSS work at top research and higher education institutions both in Taiwan and abroad, contributing substantially to the innovation, accumulation, and dissemination of social sciences knowledge, especially in the Chinese speaking world. In addition to cultivating social scientists, COSS education has allowed our graduates to develop excellent careers in corporations and not-for-profits. Many of them, by combining social sciences training with management skills, have risen to leadership and executive positions. Even more importantly, COSS has been the cradle for talents in the central and local government, as well as the legislative branch. Our graduates have played indispensable roles in the country's highest leadership and senior civil service.
(2) ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
COSS is committed to the fundamental research in social sciences and behavioral sciences. Traditional behavioral sciences aim to propose basic theories and theoretical structures that help to understand human behavior, and include topics such as preferences, choices, value formation, collective decision making, structures, and systems. COSS is also dedicated to researching major policy and social issues, take for instance education, inequality, environmental risks, industrial competitions, and financial system. By combining theories with practical problems, we hope to disseminate knowledge and bring forth social impact. Academic innovation is at the core of our research. COSS has been able to engage in cross-disciplinary research, such as working with scholars in neuroscience and genetic science to break frontiers and establish new paradigms in behavioral sciences. Aiming to challenge the limitations of traditional social sciences research, we also study and apply a wide range of social sciences methods, from econometrics, causal model, experimental economics, network analysis, game theory, historical systems, to field research.
(3) SOCIAL IMPACT RESEARCH
Our social impact is not limited to our educational role, because COSS is also devoted to institutional analysis, social innovation, and paradigm shifts. In terms of institutional analysis, COSS has research extensively on a wide range of issues, such as education policies, demography, economics and industrial policy, international relations, distributional justice, social justice, gender, and ethnical issues. Through rigorous policy analysis, we play a leading role in public policy decision making. Besides working within existing institutions, we are always thinking about and experimenting innovative ways to improve the institutions and policies. Take for instance our works in deliberative democracy, social enterprise, governmental reform, and social welfare reform. At an even higher level, we are motivated to constantly reflect upon and challenge existing social institutions and paradigms, and to develop groundbreaking societal blueprints for the entire mankind regarding issues such as market economy, democracy, environment, urban space, and social relations.