The results of last year’s university evaluations were released last Monday and while no school failed, the survey should make for uncomfortable reading for everyone from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to the Ministry of Education to parents and college students.
The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) surveyed 243 departments and graduate institutes at nine universities — including National Taiwan University and National Chung Cheng University — in the second half of last year. Twenty-seven departments and graduate programs were placed on the ministry’s watch list, and 70 percent of those 27 were graduate programs.
The council’s chief executive officer, Roger Chen (陳振遠), said 27 lacked adequate teaching staff, in part because those on the watchlist have been freezing faculty recruitment in response to the declining birth rate or asked different departments or institutes to jointly hire teachers. The freeze has placed an excessive burden on the schools’ regular teaching staff and affects teaching quality, Chen said.
It sounds reasonable for schools to tighten their belts while the ministry refuses to lift its freeze, given increasing difficulties in filling student spaces. However, cutting back on faulty recruitment also means denying students the opportunity to meet and learn from someone who may prove to be a great inspiration and help them reach their full potential.
In his New Year’s speech last year, Ma spoke of the importance of cultivating talented Taiwanese because “human resources are Taiwan’s most valuable assets and the basis for the nation’s competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy.”
In 2007, when he was running for president, Ma supported increasing education expenditure from about NT$500 billion (US$15.5 billion) a year to more than NT$700 billion by 2016. He promised to invest in the renewal of campus facilities, free kindergarten for children over five years of age, free school lunches for elementary and junior-high school students from low-income families and to develop universities and colleges with special features.
Ma’s running mate, now Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), told a Teachers of the Year award ceremony in 2007 that the government could cut back on anything but educational expenditure.
Politicians and educators have frequently proclaimed their ambition to make the nation’s universities more internationally competitive, both to benefit the schools by attracting more foreign students and the nation by producing graduates able to compete with the best in the world.
“If we refuse to make changes, great teachers and students will be gone and it will be more difficult for us to raise competitiveness,” Ma said in November last year in one of his weekly online speeches.
The HEEACT evaluations highlight the growing problem of a lack of qualified staff at some top schools. Our leaders know how important it is to educate and cultivate the nation’s best and brightest, but it is not enough to simply acknowledge that importance.
Staying economically competitive takes more than just a trade pact or two. It takes skilled personnel at all levels.
If the government is serious about the economy and education then this teaching gap must be tackled as soon as possible — by providing the funding and resources needed to keep our schools performing at their peak. Speeches and pretty words alone won’t do it.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath