Established thirteen years ago,the Soochow Extension School is an appendage of Soochow University which shares their facilities and faculty. Stressing both theory and practice, its curriculum of over forty courses provides supplementary education for students and young working people. Expanding rapidly in response to current needs, it is currently the largest extension school in Taiwan, maintaining five extension centers.
Soochow was the first University on Taiwan to establish an extension school. Tsun Ts'ing-lee, school chairman, notes that the Extension School provides the growing number of people on Taiwan seeking to continue their education with an opportunity to pursue their interests on a part-time basis.
Instruction at Soochow Extension School is oriented towards young working people. Because of their busy schedules and their desire to obtain useful skills, the school offers concentrated ten-week courses which emphasize practical training. As the courses are designed purely for supplementary education, students do not receive grades or a diploma.
When the Soochow Extension School first opened, its course offerings were limited to English and Japanese. Because of the outstanding management of these courses, the Bureau of International Culture and Educational Relations handed over the administration of its European Languages Center to the school in 1974, adding German, French and Spanish to the curriculum. By 1982, Soochow Extension School had established two new centers for training in computer systems, and business and trade. Today the school has five centers, offering 48 different courses. To date, over 30,000 students have attended the Soochow Extension School.
Classes average twenty to thirty students. Most are taught at night at the University's city branch at Hsiao Nan Men. The majority of these well-qualified instructors teach corresponding courses at Soochow University. For specialized classes which have no corresponding equivalent at the University, outstanding scholars in that field are invited to join the staff.
Practical application of what is learned is stressed by the school and requested by the students. Role playing in language conversation classes, for example, helps to improve the students' listening and speaking abilities. For those classes which train students to operate Telex machines or computers, the school provides sufficient facilities. It currently owns ten Telex machines and twenty computer terminals, and plans to increase the number of terminals to sixty by the coming summer.
The Soochow Extension School is distinguished by conscientious teaching, opportunities for the practical application of learning, and a flexible curriculum which continues to change according to new needs. Altogether, these factors make Soochow a breakthrough in extension education in Taiwan. (Jill Ardourel)