National Taiwan University (NTU) president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has been accused of plagiarizing a student's paper in a conference paper he coauthored with National Chi Nan University professor Chen Chien-liang (陳建良), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The paper, entitled “An Empirical Study of the Effect of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement on Exports” was presented at a conference held by the Academia Sinica Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences and the NTU Department of Economics on May 6 last year and published in its conference documents.
“The paper contains many sentences and charts that are almost identical to those in a thesis titled ‘The Impact of ECFA Early Harvest on Taiwan’s Export to China: Analysis by Difference-In-Differences Model,’ written by Chen’s student in July 2016,” he said, adding that Chen was the student’s thesis adviser.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
While the student cited the working paper of “An Empirical Study of the Effect of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement on Exports” several times in her thesis, Chang Liao noted 15 uncited sentences and charts with a high degree of similarity to those in the published paper.
The paper does not cite the student’s thesis, but does have a short note thanking the student for providing a chart and a list.
As an example, a sentence in the student’s thesis reads: “The government should use the empirical evidence as the basis for communicating with different sectors and analyze the data to help with future planning of industry policies,” which is almost identical to the sentence in the published paper: “The government should use the empirical evidence as the basis for communicating with different sectors and use the data as the basis for planning future trade and industry policies,” Chang Liao said.
The two papers use the same methodology, theme and conclusion, he added.
“It appears that Kuan and Chen might have written their paper based on the master’s student’s thesis,” he said. “If the student had plagiarized their paper, why would Chen allow her to graduate?”
Kuan owes the public an explanation and NTU, Academia Sinica and the Ministry of Education should investigate the matter, he said.
According to a Chinese-language United Daily News report, Chen said that the student cited his working paper in her thesis and that Chang got it “the wrong way round.”
Chen is in Myanmar on a business trip and is to return to Taiwan on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, several academics and politicians expressed concerns over a possible conflict of interest in the NTU president election after several media outlets reported that Kuan was an independent director of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and that company vice chairman Richard Tsai (蔡明興) was a member of the university’s presidential election committee.
NTU said the election complied with the university’s regulations, but the ministry, which is in the process of reviewing Kuan’s appointment, has requested NTU clarify issues regarding the alleged conflict of interest and plagiarism.
As there are very few laws and regulations governing universities, it is difficult to correct their mistakes, DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said, adding that the ministry should address the issue.
To prevent similar controversies, the government must have regulations and universities must be disciplined and have better election regulations, she added.
FORCED LABOR: Customs officials have seized a 11.8 tonne shipment of products made from human hair on suspicion they were produced by people facing human rights abuses Federal authorities in New York City on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp. US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) officials said that 11.8 tonnes of hair products worth an estimated US$800,000 were in the shipment. “The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in
IRRESPONSIBLE ATTITUDES? Some experts say the NHI system does not do enough to educate the public, or pay doctors to talk to patients, about healthy lifestyles While the life expectancy of Taiwanese newborns in 2018 reached 80.69 years, the number of years people spent in poor health hit a record high at 8.41 years, Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed on Saturday. Healthy life expectancy is calculated by a person’s life expectancy minus the time they spend in ill health, such as the loss of mobility, disabilities and chronic disease, based on medical records and calculations about the years they live with disabilities. The number of years that Taiwanese spend in poor health is increasing slowly, but steadily, rising by 0.46 years, or five-and-a-half months, between 2012
UPTICK IN NUMBERS: The Taipei deputy mayor said the city has services to assist new immigrants, but has established an office specifically to help those from Hong Kong The Taiwan-Hong Kong Services and Exchanges Office today officially opens, where it is to provide humanitarian assistance to Hong Kongers, after Beijing yesterday passed a controversial national security law for the territory. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed dismay over China’s passage of the law, saying that Beijing has broken its pledge to allow Hong Kong to maintain a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years following its handover from the UK. “I feel extremely disappointed [about the law’s passage], which means China did not keep its promise to Hong Kong,” Tsai said in Taipei. Beijing’s “broken promise” also
‘BASELESS ACCUSATIONS’: Ker Chien-ming said it was not possible to drop Chen Chu’s nomination, while KMT lawmakers accused their DPP rivals of ‘homicidal behavior’ The Legislative Yuan is to vote on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) nominations for the Control Yuan on July 17 after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators regained access to the legislative chamber yesterday after it was occupied by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers for about 19 hours. The Legislative Yuan had been scheduled to meet yesterday morning to discuss its planned extraordinary session, but more than 20 KMT lawmakers on Sunday afternoon broke into the main chamber and occupied the legislative speaker’s podium to protest Tsai’s nomination of former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) to be Control Yuan president. The KMT caucus
RSS