Print

Mail

wiki links

MOE backs appointment

Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) yesterday endorsed newly-appointed National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) President Huang Kuang-tsae's (黃光彩) controversial credentials for the position.

"As of last night and this morning, NTNU reported Huang's credentials again, which included letters from the Institute of Systems Science (ISS) at Singapore University. According to all the information, Huang's credentials checked out," Tu said yesterday at the Legislative Yuan.

During the education committee's question-and-answer session yesterday, Huang's credentials and academic qualifications remained a topic of contention among many legislators.

"As an NTNU alumni, I have been rather embarrassed by Huang's [questionable] qualifications ... If Huang is not qualified, the ministry should have him replaced," said Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang Tuoh (王拓).

In response, Tu said that Huang's credentials have fulfilled the Statute Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel (教育人員任用條例), which stipulates that university presidents are required to have served as a chancellor or director of an educational institute for at least four years.

"The Ministry of Education is the authority in charge of checking out one's qualifications for potential educational supervisors," Tu said.

Tu cited former college presidents as examples of what is needed to meet the requirements for the position.

According to Tu, Liu Chao-han (劉兆漢), former president of National Central University served as scientific secretary at the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics; and Liu Chung-laung (劉炯朗), former president of National Tsinghua University, was a supervisor on an academic program committee at the University of Illinois.

"These two had been recognized by the ministry as having first-class college supervisor qualifications. Therefore, we felt that Huang met the required qualifications as well," Tu said. The controversy surrounding Huang's credentials began when Chinese-language media last week alleged that his experience as program manager at ISS from 1989 to 1995 had not met the prerequisites needed to be the NTNU president.

Huang worked as a senior manager at IBM for 18 years after receiving his PhD degree in electronic engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This story has been viewed 2295 times.