When it comes to study abroad, many students think of not only learning their professions, but also experience something new in a different country. After all, they have got plenty of time to do lots of THINGS after class! One may think of going out, hanging and seeing around the city where they will be staying, and at the same time they can explore from every city corner, hoping to dig something special out! One may also hope to go to the countryside or suburban areas, get to know the locals, try new food, and occasionally bump into something that surprises them! I bet you do not just want to stay in only one or two cities, but earger to visit more places and go to see the wild nature or even go hiking on high mountains! Learning knowledge and having great fun at the same time! Then BACT is what you really need to take!
BACT Summer Program stands for Biodiversity, Agriculture, and Culture of Taiwan Summer Program.
This program has been held by the College of Bioresources and Agriculture (CBA), National Taiwan University since 2007. It is truly special and differernt from most summer programs, in which you will be able to learn and experience a lot through the interactions with students, teachers, and the locals. Taiwan has been rooted in agriculture long long time ago and today we still have very well-manged rice paddies and beautiful countryside! You will also have the chance to go into the rice paddies and feel by yourself the soil/mud/sand....whatever you call it, and do some seedling plantating practices :-)
The mother nature~here we see biodiverstiy!!! If you google TAIWAN, you will find that the highest mountain in East Asian, which is called Jade mountain (as Yu-Shan/玉山 in Chinese), is right here. Yu-Shan reaches almost to 4,000 meters high and has a very comfortable and pleasant climate in summer time.
Appreciate beautiful landscapes and terrains~Taiwan is located in the Pacific seismic belt, which means you can see volcano here, and we will truly take you to. Also, it is quite a big tropical and subtropical island, ranking 38th in the world (imagine that there are thousands of islands around the world). This means we have plenty of natural resources and beautiful scenaries. From sandy beaches, rocky shores or beautiful coral reefs, you can go all the way up to see boreal forests in merely three to four hours! :-)
Meet hospitable local peopole~as you may have heard already, people in Taiwan are full of hospitality. If you run into a local and seek help, they would usually and definitely help you without hesitation. Taiwan's people are warm and kind and like to make friends with. You will find out who we are by yourself ^^~
Experience the Eastern and Chinese Culture~if you are from western societies, then again the BACT Summer program must be your first priority for destination choices regarding with study abroad. Nowdays, Taiwan still keeps the complex Chinese writing and we have tens of thousands of complex characters, which are very different from the simplified ones in mainland China. These complex characters tell you every meaning and their shapes reveals how they have evolved into today's Chinese since the very first time they were created around 6,000 years ago. The National Palace Museum hosts countless and abundant treasures, each piece of which represents its unique era and dynasty. These piece of art work has their stories to tell you about. Religions are also very different. Buddhism (佛教) and Taoism (道教) are the two main religions in Taiwan. Many locals cannot even distinguish one from the other. Sometimes, they see the two as one. Of course, you can also see many other religoins where people live peacefully without any conflict.
Tasty food~^_^ I do not need to say too much about this part as we all love trying something new and eat something differernt. Food is always something appealing enough taht opens up our senses. So, come and try the local food at Taiwan's night markets!
Visit many cities and countryside~We believe that very few summer programs allow participants to have 2 weeks outside the campus where most main activities take place, and students are taken out to visit so many suburban areas! In the BACT program, you will have time to get close to the beaches, intertidal zone, and mountains. And we move within the two weeks and stay in different places. Students who are like you are gonna like it!
With all these being said, you may start to think and even wonder how this could be true~and yes, it is true. The College of Bioresources and Agriculture, National Taiwan University (CBA, NTU) has been holding the "Biodiversity, Agriculture, and Culture of Taiwan Summer Program" for 10 years. We bring all the indoor lectures, outdoor field trips, DIY and team project together into one, hoping the participant students to gain knowledge from the lectures and see and experince by themselves the "real things" while they are doing outdoor activities. Through the BACT program, we hope that students have already learned about agriculture, known much about this land and have met and become good friends with the local NTU students.
The BACT program is fully conducted in English, with 4 credits and transcript provided. If you are the student of one of our partner colleges from UI, UMD, Purdue, Kyoto-U., U-Tokyo, U-Tsukuba, SNU, and Donguk-Uyou, you may even consider about taking the Lab Research Work and Internship (LRWI), which is just one month earlier or later right before or after the BACT program starts/ends.
Come and join us! Find out more below!
Program Fees & Application Deadline for 2024 BACT
| Identity | Agricultural Colleges from: | Partner university of National Taiwan University |
Non-partner university | |
| USA | UIUC, Purdue, Cornell | |||
| Japan | Kyoto-U, U-Tsukuba, U-Tokyo | |||
| South Korea | SNU, Dongguk-U | |||
| Application fee | USD 300 (non-refundable) | |||
| Program fee | USD 3,000 | USD 3,500 | USD 3,800 | |
| LRWI fee | USD 1,300 | --- | --- | |
| Total | USD 3,300 (BACT) USD 4,600 (BACT & LRWI) |
USD 3,800 | USD 4,100 | |
˙BACT program fee covers course materials, program T-shirt and bag, all the accommodation, student ID card, three fifths of meals, transportation in Taiwan.
˙LRWI program fee covers room fees and lab materials. Students are responsible for their own living expenses, including meals and transportation.
˙All participants are responsible for: their own personal expenses, and transportation from the airport to the accommodation hotel/dorm. When participating in the program in Taipei, every two students of the same gender will share the same room with two separate single beds. However, every two students of the same gender have to share the same room with two separate big beds (4 people and 2 beds in general) while staying outside of Taipei for about 2 weeks, particularly for BACT participants.
*Assessment on each application is always required before the applicants get accepted. Please write to ntuciaeae@ntu.edu.tw before you go to NTU Plus Academy to apply.
!! For Application procedures, please refer to the tentative schedule below and read it carefully.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (Please click for more information)