The nation’s first offshore island university was inaugurated in Kinmen yesterday, with the Ministry of Education vowing the county would be exempted from limits on the number of Chinese students allowed to study there.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said residents of Kinmen had been calling for the creation of a university on the island for 20 years.
The government had requested a substantial budget for the renamed National Kinmen Institute of Technology, now officially known as National Quemoy University, Wu said, adding that the ministry would also allow the university to enroll as many Chinese students as it wanted as a means to thank residents of the island, which was once a frontline in the war between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party.
“Kinmen will be treated as a special zone to attract Chinese students. The 2,000 student cap will not apply to Kinmen,” he said. “As long as Chinese students are willing to attend National Quemoy University, we will accept them.”
The government has imposed a ceiling of 2 percent of total student admissions, or 2,000 Chinese students, at Taiwanese universities in the first year of the new policy to assuage fears that the presence of Chinese students could compromise the rights of Taiwanese students.
The bills have yet to clear the legislature, but the KMT caucus has vowed to deal with the proposals during this month’s provisional session. The amendments affect the University Act (大學法), the Vocational School Act (專科學校法) and the Act Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛), director of the ministry’s Department of Higher Education, said the ministry was also considering granting similar flexibility to schools on other offshore islands, including Penghu.
Lee Chin-cheng (李金振), president of National Quemoy University, said the school would expand its dormitories so that Chinese students who would like to study at the school could live there through to graduation.
On behalf of Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who was also at the ceremony, donated US$1 million to fund the establishment of an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute at the university.
Yesterday’s ceremony came the day after the Kinmen Education Bureau announced that more than 20 Taiwanese universities were planning to set up branches on Kinmen in preparation for the admission of Chinese students.
The county government said it would provide 2.5 hectares of land for use by universities.
Meanwhile, Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) said the county government would provide scholarships to attract top Chinese students to study on Kinmen, even though universities in Taiwan are prohibited from doing so.
The top 20 students in each class at National Quemoy University will be granted full tuition waivers, Li said. The tuition aid and transportation allowance for every student would also be raised, from NT$14,000 to NT$20,000, he added.
In related news, the president of Xiamen University cited National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday as the best university in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, with its solid academic foundation and innovation research.
NTU maintains a close connection with the pulse of Taiwanese society and plays a role in boosting social and economic development, Zhu Chongshi (朱崇實) said.
However, Zhu said Chinese universities were progressing well.
“They will catch up [with NTU] before long,” he said.
Noting that a great many Taiwanese companies have invested in China, he forecast that Chinese students being allowed to study in Taiwan would eventually be helpful to Taiwanese companies.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique