History

The College of Metaverse, established in 2022, is the first of its kind in Taiwan. Its founding is a response to the emerging trends in the application of digital art derived from the development of the metaverse. The college aims to cultivate forward-thinking talents in interdisciplinary digital art research, creation, and management, as well as explore how to present digital art in the metaverse world. It serves as an institution dedicated to studying the cultural and social ecosystem of the metaverse.

The college is composed of several departments, including the Executive Master of Arts Administration (established in 2019) and the Graduate Institute of Sound Technology (established in 2021). The Master's program in the Metaverse will be officially established in 2024, completing the overall structure of the college as shown in the following diagram.

Current Status

In 2022, the college was founded as a graduate institute and a master's program with seven full-time faculty members. The Graduate Institute of Sound Technology is Taiwan's first independent research institute specializing in sound technology. It uses English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and aims to cultivate professionals in sound technology and audio engineering with international skills. The institute also explores the immersive auditory experiences in the metaverse environment. The faculty members have expertise in interdisciplinary studies and sound technology. They provide instruction in academic expertise and draw on their industry experiences to offer knowledge on interdisciplinary fields and current industry practices.

The Executive Master of Arts Administration(EMAA) is a pioneering initiative that cultivates managerial talents in the art industry for elites. The faculty team consists of experts from industry, government, and academia. The students are distributed among various industry elites, including technology, arts and culture, public relations, education, healthcare, and government sectors.

The curriculum is rooted in art management and incorporates specialized content in law, technology, and big data. It promotes active participation and encourages cross-disciplinary exchanges within various art fields. The program integrates the latest technology with art, humanities, and cultural creativity to facilitate cross-disciplinary academic integration and research. Its objective is to develop management professionals who possess expertise in both artistic creativity and law, while also exploring the future social and work patterns in the metaverse era from humanistic, artistic, and legal perspectives.

Characteristics and Niche

1. As the first and currently the only college-level Metaverse research unit in Taiwan, this college is entirely composed of brand new departments that foster a culture of innovation and experimentation. It covers up-to-date topics such as TMT (Technology/Media/Telecom), the metaverse, blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other areas related to art, technology, finance, and law. This interdisciplinary approach opens up new avenues of research and explores the possibilities of emerging fields in art associated with the metaverse. It is in line with the university's philosophy of "art as the body and technology as the tool."
2. The EMAA program offers data science courses and related information technology that utilize big data as material and machine learning as the method. These technologies are combined with the current third wave of artificial intelligence to demonstrate their cutting-edge capabilities and future potential in content-assisted creation and business marketing analysis. The program also employs open-source software for data mining, establishes a mindset for data analysis, and cultivates a new generation of talent in art creation and management.
3. EMAA students are already employed in relevant industry venues and institutions, which allows them to apply their learning in their daily work. After graduation, students become alumni who can establish a direct connection between their workplaces and the program. This creates a mutually beneficial environment for collaborative education, shared resources, and faculty development.
4. Our university is one of three art universities in Taiwan and the only one located outside the Greater Taipei area. The college has taken the lead in research and teaching related to the metaverse, establishing an important hub in Tainan. This helps balance regional development and avoids excessive concentration of resources in the northern part of Taiwan, providing local learning opportunities for aspiring students in the southern region.