In 2000, the Holistic Education Center was established as a college-level unit. The centre was responsible for the planning and teaching of holistic education courses with the aim of cultivating liberal knowledge, critical thinking ability, citizen literacy, and the basic abilities for social participation in students, thereby ensuring their holistic development in terms of body, mind, and spirit.
The centre adjusts teaching units and goals according to the needs of society. In response to Pope Francis’s call for people to work toward Sustainable Development Goals on May 24, 2015, in 2020 FJCU comprehensively integrated SDG-based teaching goals into its compulsory holistic courses, including Introduction to University Studies (freshman course), Philosophy of Life (sophomore and junior course), and Professional Ethics (junior and senior course)

Introduction to University Studies

FJCU has comprehensively integrated SDG-based teaching goals into the freshman course Introduction to University Studies. The course is designed to provide a 30-min introduction of the 17 SDGs to students at the start of the semester. Throughout the seven course units, multiple examples of the University and international societies achieving SDGs goals are provided, thereby highlighting sustainable development topics as the core spirit and values of higher education to the freshmen.

Philosophy of Life

The Philosophy of Life course comprises content on philosophy thinking and methods, self-understanding, interpersonal relationships, marriage and family, social justice, environmental change and development, aesthetics and lifestyle, life and death, religion and belief, and the establishment of a holistic lifestyle perspective. Through its course design, the Philosophy of Life course adopts multiple dimensions to explore examples of SDG-based applications in everyday life, thereby cultivating students’ philosophical thinking abilities. The course enables students to understand their position in a transient environment; develop a harmonious relationship between cosmos, person, nature, and self; and develop a respectful and caring outlook on life through diverse thinking, problem-solving, self-reflection, and communication.
LINK : Philosophy of Life course: Course goals and unit goals

Professional Ethics

The content of the Professional Ethics course comprises the value of ethics and the meaning of existence, human dignity and professional responsibility, ethics and theories of the virtue theory, ethics and theories of deontology, ethics and theories of teleology, principles of fairness and justice, and moral cognition development theory. The Professional Ethics course is designed to guide students from the 12 colleges in understanding the relevant and inseparable connections between the topics explored in the Professional Ethics course and SDGs while attending the professional courses of each college.
The Professional Ethics course guides students in gaining ethical awareness, developing moral recognition, and pursuing the principles of fairness and justice while cultivating professional knowledge in their respective colleges. Thus, when they encounter problems related to SDGs, students can adopt a perspective of human dignity, professional responsibility, ethical awareness, and moral recognition when brainstorming, reflecting on, and planning a solution in response to current challenges and obstacles pertaining to SDGs.
LINK : Professional Ethics course: Course goals and unit goals

The University promises to integrate SDGs elements in the professional courses of each college within the next 3 years to ensure the cultivation of professional talents who possess the ability to apply SDG-based thinking to solve interdisciplinary problems. Additionally, the University will offer SDG-based interdisciplinary courses that cultivate talents who have interdisciplinary collaboration abilities and are capable of solving ecological, resource-based, social, and economic problems encountered while pursuing SDGs.