Within Taiwan, the related departments generally rendered in two ways, one is the related academic department in the institute of physical education, and the other is the academic departments related to tourism or leisure studies. In recent years, there are existences of many academic departments which specializing in the studies of "sports and health", "health and leisure", "leisure and sports".
Because tourism refers to getting away from the place of residence, involving a longer time and more expenditure; the touring activities are very different from the people daily life-style. In addition, leisure studies tend to lack of skills and knowledge in physical activities, thus result in disabling planning and management on the full of the leisure activities. Simply learning health without understanding the basic ideas of sports and leisure may limit health maintenance and application. Purely emphasizing in physical motor skills and sport technical training may result in lacking of holistic-person education. The United State of America has advanced in the studies of sports, health and leisure 50 years over us; hence we need to set up an academic department to integrate these fields for the sake of the people health and wellness.
The National University of Kaohsiung is an integrating university. In view of the constraints in education resources for man power, materials and administration, there is a necessity of academic technology integration. Therefore, we have established the Department of Kinesiology, health and leisure studies which is also currently the only one academic department existing in the national universities in the country that integrate the studies of sport, health and leisure. In addition to compensate for the past individual academic departments that are too divisive splitting in these fields, our mission is to combine sports, health and leisure. These can extend the knowledge of sport and leisure, and integrate into the knowledge of health. The department is a real implementation of integrating three fields of studies, focus on theory and practice, incorporate culture and technology in the planning and management sports, health and leisure, and eventually create a holistic health which highlights the University's governing idea.