College legal code under attack

College administrators should not exclude themselves from abiding by the laws followed by the rest of society and have no right to deprive students of their right to receive an education, human rights campaigners said yesterday.

They said punishments on a college campuses should be based on national law. Bylaws or administrative instructions, they maintain, are not adequate to penalize college students.

The `real' issue

"The focus of the recent debate surrounding whether students should be expelled from school when they fail to meet minimum scholastic requirements was blurred, as most discussions failed to pinpoint the real issue," said Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), lawyer and chairperson for the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會).

"The core of the controversy is not whether these students should be expelled. I absolutely concur that schools have every right to set up guidelines ensuring the quality of students. But what needs to be thought over is by what legal regulations are these students expelled?"

Lin's comments were made in response to heated discussions sparked last week following a ruling handed down by the Administrative High Court, which determined that colleges did not have the authority to oust students for weak academic performance.

The ruling was made in response to an appeal filed by a former student of Shih Hsin University (世新大學), who was kicked out of the school on the grounds that he failed more than half of his courses.

In Taiwan, most colleges and universities have rules stating that students will be expelled if they fail half of their courses in a single semester. Some colleges oust students who fail two-thirds of their courses. But disputes over punishments meted out are endless due to the uneven enforcement of -- and variations in -- present regulations.

With the aim of avoiding conflict, the Ministry of Education granted universities the right to stipulate academic punishments three years ago. And according to the by-laws -- rules by which schools implement legislation -- of the University Law (大學法施行細則), which took effect at the same time, schools have to stipulate the rules governing the ousting of students, and these rules have to be presented to the education ministry for reference.

Currently, more than 80 percent of universities dismiss students if they fail more than half of their classes.

Those who opposed last week's judicial decision, mostly college administrators and officials in the education ministry, argued that the judicial ruling usurped the autonomy of universities.

But those who agree with the ruling say that the internal guidelines of colleges and universities incorrectly deprive students of their right to an education. It is up to the legislature to decide under what circumstances a student can be ousted.

Bylaws not laws

"The bylaws [of the University Law] are not tantamount to law. Any restrictions should be regulated under the law, not by administrative decrees," Lin said. "To legalize the punishment, universities have to first push for the legislation."

Lin also pointed out many other internal rules worked out by schools are in need of repair, such as the regulations governing student organizations and punishments designed to curb student wrongdoing.

"This incident is just the tip of the iceberg. Many rules lack legal grounding, or are in violation of students' human rights. Though schools have established avenues for students to appeal, most of their operations and decision-making procedures failed to guarantee due legal process. Students rights are infringed upon, then they are forced to resort to the legal system outside of the school," said Lin.