On August 20, 2020, the Ministry of Education (MOE) held the ‘2020 National Conference for Deans of Students Affairs in Colleges’ at Shih Chien University. This conference was to lead Deans of Student Affairs of universities and colleges in our nation to deeply understand current important measures and policy points of student affairs, and to facilitate the passing-on of experience, interactions and exchanges.

This conference was hosted by the Political Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, Ching-Hwa Tsai, and he presented awards and praised the 46 senior Deans of Student Affairs who were re-appointed or completed their terms of office. Meanwhile, Shih-Cheng Liao, the Director of the Division of Psychosomatic Medicine from the Department of Psychiatry of the National Taiwan University Hospital was invited to deliver a speech on ‘Mental health facilitation on campuses and suicide prevention’ based on the topic of juvenile suicide, which has received more attention in recent years. His speech discussed the challenges and the responding and prevention strategies of current mental health issues on campuses, as well as suicide prevention, and the expectation was everyone could become the ‘gatekeepers of cherishing life’. In addition, Chen-Ping Lin, Associate Professor of the Graduate Institute of Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling from National Kaohsiung Normal University was also invited to deliver a speech on ‘How universities and colleges can assist physically and mentally disabled students to transfer and connect to their careers’. Her speech assisted schools to understand the importance of promoting measures of transferring and connecting to careers for physically and mentally disabled students, and assisting students to develop their career selection ability, thereby smoothly finding an appropriate career path, through the assistance of perception, exploration, and preparation of their careers for physically and mentally disabled students provided by education.

This conference also specially arranged ‘to establish an adaptable and friendly campus scenario from the perspective of integrated education in universities and colleges’, and provided relevant subtopics to enable exchanges between these Deans. The expectation was that through the discussion of adaption, needs, challenges, the crisis management of special education students on campuses, and the integration of resources and the cooperation modes of campuses’ support systems, and with the combination of campuses’ practical experience and case sharing, the comprehensive experience exchange and sharing could be conducted. Moreover, through the interactive process of listening and communicating, the horizontal communication of these Deans in each school would be enhanced, partnerships would be fostered, thus further benefiting the promotion of student affairs operation in the future. In addition, a routine agenda of the promotion of functions and duties policy within the MOE and a comprehensive conversation was arranged as well, which enabled the participating Deans to become more familiar with the current policy points of the MOE and the follow-up cooperation matters. Through the measures of instant reflection and response, schools could be assisted to clarify problems and answer their questions.

It was expected that through observation and learning as well as exchanging and passing-on of experiences between these participating Deans of Student Affairs of universities and colleges, the effective promotion of student affairs operations could be undertaken, and the professional knowledge and abilities of student affairs could be enhanced. This will thereby cultivate student affairs operations in every dimension, further accompany students to overcome each challenge and difficulty, and enhance the overall quality of student affairs operation performances.