I. Definition of “Benchmark 標竿.”
It is important that to seek a “benchmark university” properly, we need to understand what the inherent meaning of the word is. Interestingly, in English, according to Cambridge Dictionary, it can be a noun or a verb.
Noun: a level of quality which can be used as a standard when comparing other things:
Examples of usage:
Her outstanding performances set a new benchmark for singers throughout the world;
rigorous benchmarking of research performance;

The Government is planning to launch a benchmarking scheme to guide consumers.

Verb: to measure the quality of something by comparing it with something else of an accepted standard:
Example of usage
His reports pointed out that we do not have reliability in the sense of all schools being benchmarked against the best.

From these precise definitions, the word “benchmark” has two meanings: quality and invariant with time. The former is transparent and the latter is embedded. To be a benchmark, quality is obviously non-negotiable and time invariant is because it should not be a moving target.

II. National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Benchmark university criterions.
The selection of a benchmark university for NCKU is based on the following criterions.
＊ We believe that the overall organizational structure of the benchmark university has significant overlap with NCKU. For example while UC Berkeley, MIT and Georgia Tech are truly quality universities, their overall structures deviate sufficiently from NCKU (both UC Berkeley, MIT and Georgia Tech lack a medical school and MIT being a private university and Georgia Tech is unreasonably skewed towards technologies) to render them inappropriate as benchmarks. It should be underscored that this does not mean that the engineering schools of Berkeley, MIT or Georgia Tech are not appropriate benchmarks for NCKU’s engineering colleges, but overall speaking as universities they are not.
＊We believe that it is expected that the global reputation of a benchmark university can withstand and has withstood the test of time. This criterion diminishes worldwide the number of such universities significantly. In the Mainland, we are only confident that Peking University and Tsinghua University can fulfill this requirement. In UK, they are Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College. In Japan, they are University of Tokyo and Kyoto University and to a lesser extent Tohoku University and Osaka University. In US, there are far more, such as University of Virginia, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois at Urbana, University of North Carolina, University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, UCSD and University of Washington. Finally, to a lesser extent, in Korea, it is Seoul National University.
＊ We believe that last but not least, it is important that besides the obvious criterions listed above, there are also criterions not often stated, at least not transparently, which also play fundamental role. Indeed, for a 21st century research intensive comprehensive university in Asia Pacific, such as NCKU, our inherent historical, cultural, social and political parallelisms with a benchmark university are equally and critically important.

Selection of Kyoto University (Kyodai) as NCKU’s overall benchmark.
Based on the above mentioned criterions, we have chosen Kyodai as out benchmark.
First, allow us to list some relevant data between our two universities. There are of course more data one could include in this discussion. However, we believe that those listed here will illustrate succinctly how Kyodai is chosen.
General Information Comparison between NCKU and Kyodai

Comments
While there are many outstanding universities in Japan, two stand out: University of Tokyo (or Todai) which is in the political nerve center of Japan and Kyoto University (or Kyodai) which is in the ancient cultural center and former capitol of Japan. Todai and Kyodai were both founded at the end of 19th century, during Meiji Reformation, as Tokyo Imperial University and Kyoto Imperial University, respectively. Similarly, there are two comprehensive research universities in Taiwan: National Taiwan University (or Taida) which is in the political nerve center of Taiwan and National Cheng Kung University (Chengda) which is in the ancient cultural center and former capitol of Taiwan. Taida and Chengda were both founded in the first half of the 20th century, during Japanese occupation days, as Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University and Tainan Technical College, respectively.
Since its founding, Kyodai has maintained its intellectual leadership in Japan. This is best manifested by Hideki Yukawa (湯川秀樹,) followed by 6 other faculty members from Kyodai being awarded the Nobel prizes since 1949. The latest is Toshihide Maskawa (益川 敏英) who became a physics laureate in 2008. Also, two mathematicians won the highly tauted Field Medal in 1970 and 1990 respectively. It should be remembered since 1949, there are altogether 15 Nobel laureates from Japan.
QS Ranking of Kyoto University

According to the 2007 QS and Shanghai Jiaotong University ARWU rankings, Kyodai was ranked 25 and 21 globally respectively. This information clearly delineates that as far as a leading university globally is concerned, Kyodai is NOT a moving target. Its excellence has withstood the test of time. Another interesting point about QS ranking of Kyodai is that it is strong in all major disciplines. It is worth noting that despite Kyodai’s global perception that it is exceptionally strong in science and humanities, a perception probably came about because of its significant number of Nobel laureates in science, its engineering, IT and life sciences are equally strong on a global scale. This is indeed a palpable manifestation of an overall strong comprehensive university. This is a level which NCKU needs to aspire to.

Structurally, Kyodai has 10 Colleges (or Faculty). They are Integrated Human Studies (総合人間学部,) Letters (文学部,) Education (教育学部,) Law (法学部,) Economics (経済学部,) Science (理学部,) Medicine (医学部,) with an affiliated University Hospital, Pharmaceutical Sciences (薬学部,) and Engineering (工学部,) Agriculture (農学部.)

Structurally, Chengda has 9 Colleges. They are College of Liberal Arts (文學院,) College of Social Science (社會科學院,) College of Management (管理學院,) College of Science (理學院,) College of Engineering (工學院,) College of Medicine (醫學院,) with two affiliated University Hospitals, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (電資學院院長,) College of Planning and Design (規劃與設計學院) and College of Bioscience and Biotechnology (生物科學與科技學院.)

It is worth underscoring that Kyodai has an enormous, full scale and modern medical school with affiliated hospital! So does Chengda. Except for one exception (Chengda does not have a College of Agriculture,) and for some understandable redistribution of where disciplines may reside within the operational structure of the university because of local conditions, Kyodai and Chengda have very similar organizational structures. Additionally, Kyodai has 23,000 students, with slightly more undergraduates then graduate students. It has approximately 2900 FTE faculty members. For Chengda, it has 21,000 students, with undergraduates and graduate students evenly distributed. It is worth underscoring is the enormous difference of FTE faculty members between Kyodai and Chengda. For Chengda, it is around 1300, nearly 1400 lower than Kyodai. This difference clearly delineates as a major and fundamental challenge for Chengda.

As was mentioned earlier, like Todai and Kyodai, Taida and Chengda are in the political nerve center, Taipei and cultural heart, Tainan, respectively. Just as Tokyo and Kyoto, in Taiwan, there is significant sociological difference between Taipei and Tainan. Just as Kyoto, in Tainan, there is considerable pride of the area by the “locals.’ The culture that permeates the city is palpable!

Another interesting similarity worth underscoring is the travel time between Tokyo and Kyoto and between Taipei and Tainan. High speed rail travel from Tokyo to Kyoto takes slightly two hours by Japanese bullet train (Shinkansen.) From Taipei to Tainan (since the first quarter of 2007,) it takes approximately one hour and forty minutes! Just as Tokyo and Kyoto, the high speed train significantly “shortened” the perceived distance between these two cities, thus benefiting Kyodai greatly in the intellectual movement, which include recruitment of excellent students beyond the typical geographical range, faculty and distinguished visitors sharing between the two cities and other regions in Taiwan, the same is beginning to happen between Taipei and Tainan. Of course, the shortened distance between Tokyo and Kyoto has been in existence for more than half a century, thus much lessons can be learned by Taida from Kyodai.
There are also other similarity of Taiwan and Japan in general, and about Kyodaii and Chengda in particular. For example, while Kyodaii heralded the production of one of the great scientists of the 20th century, Hideki Yukawa, NCKU claims Paul Ching-Wu Chu (朱經武) as favorite son, who co-discovered high temperature superconductivity. In addition, Chengda or NCKU, just like Kyodai or Kyoto University, also produced many industrial mega-giants, such as Founder of the multibillion dollars high-tech conglomerate, Delta Electronics, Mr. Bruce Cheng.

Our preliminary research on the interactions between Kyodai and Kyoto is that the university is perceived to be an important and critical sociological infrastructure of the enormous, ancient and modern city of Kyoto. This is one area where Chengda can learn from Kyodai.

Bridge the gap
To determine the gap between Chengda and Kyoda, one way is to compare the QS rankings.
QS Ranking of National Cheng Kung University

Comparing the two 2007 QS rankings, (Kyodai QS ranking was given earlier,) it is obvious that there is significant gap between Chengda and Kyodai.

Having the “right size” intellectual manpower is obviously one of the most important ingredients of a world-class university. In this respect, perhaps the most visible difference between the two universities is the size of the students and faculty numbers. Since the students number are the same, and Kyodai faculty number is more than a factor of 2 larger than Chengda, one of the major challenges of Chengda to bridge the gap is to recruit significant additional world-class faculty within the next decade which will put great challenge on (1) significantly improve the financial structure and (2) the entire university community, from administration to faculty to seek world-class faculty relentlessly.

A world class university must project its “excellence” through its history. Kyodai, since the days of Yukawa winning the Nobel prize never cease to promote the tremendous history it possesses globally. In many ways, Chengda also has a great history, especially since 1949 when the university rapidly transforms from merely a small engineering college to become a research intensive comprehensive university. However, for Chengda to bridge the gap, to promote our “excellence” through our history has a great deal of room to improve.
Recruiting even higher quality students must be one of the most important task of a university. A lesson one can obviously learn from Kyodai is how it can, not being located in the heart of Japan’s nerve center, Tokyo, that it can recruit from all over the country its best students. This is a complicated formula: tremendous reputation of the university, a student-centric culture by the faculty and administration, having innovative and relevant education curriculum for the 21st century, a world-class university infrastructure, which include cultural and physical facilities are all fundamental ingredients. This is another area where Chengda can learn from Kyodai.

In the past several decades, Kyodai has embedded itself into the great historical and cultural city of Kyoto. It is the intellectual and economic heart of this great city and with symbiotic relations between “town and gown.” This relationship is a source of strong support of greater Kyoto for Kyodai and contributed to its world-class status. The town and gown relation between Kyodai and Kyoto is far more intricate than the relation between, say Cambridge University and Cambridge city. It requires constant mutual nurturing. After all, for the former, the city is massive and for the latter the city is minute. This is another area where Chengda can learn a great deal from Kyodai.
Finally, in his recent visit to Chengda, Dr. Hiroshi Matsumoto, President of Kyodai mentioned that one of the most important advantages of Kyodai ”…is the freedom atmosphere, which include academic freedom and freedom from control of central government, which allows Kyodai to conduct independent and creative research….” By implication, it means that to create a world-class university, one must have a comfortable yet competitive world-class atmosphere, which must include a profound sense of self confidence, for its people to proactively push knowledge boundaries.

Final Comment
As was mentioned earlier, Kyodai globally intellectual leadership is very solid and not a moving target. From this point of view, while Chengda today is still far from Kyodai, with our similarities outlined here, with inherent historical, cultural, social and political parallelisms, with creative, innovative and engaging leadership, it is our firm believe that Chengda, deriving inspiration from Kyodai as benchmark, to become the 21st century Taiwan’s Kyodai (成大是二十一世紀台灣的京都大學) within the foreseeable future is definitely a laudable and reachable goal.