The controversy over the credentials of National Taiwan Normal University's (NTNU) president continued to cloud the university as students and faculty spoke up on both sides about whether the president is qualified to lead the prestigious university.
Hundreds of NTNU students and professors protested yesterday morning in front of the Ministry of Education against the ministry's legitimizing the appointment of NTNU president Huang Kuan-tsae (
"The Ministry of Education and the election committee at NTNU kept passing the buck to each other. We ask the ministry to review Huang's credentials based on the original documents, instead of having him provide supplementary certificates," said Tsai Rong-ling (
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chanting the slogan "Saving NTNU," protesters stressed that the dispute is not a political issue, but simply a matter of qualifications. They called on Huang to step down to end the dispute and save the university's reputation.
While the protesters later walked to the Legislative Yuan to voice their opposition, a small contingent of students and professors from the university joined academic groups and some legislators inside the Legislative Yuan to support Huang.
According to Hung Wann-sheng (
"The dispute over Huang's credentials is caused by different educational systems between Singapore and Taiwan. I hope our students and faculty can acknowledge Huang's efforts in pushing for reform at NTNU, instead of letting the whole issue become politicized," Hung said during a press conference yesterday morning to support Huang's appointment.
Echoing Hung's opinion, a health education senior at the university surnamed Wei called on all students at NTNU to support Huang's reforms of the university.
"I think it's time for NTNU to transform its conservative image into a more open and international school," Wei said.
Academic groups, including the Northern and Southern Taiwan Societies, the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP) and the Taiwan Teachers Association, also issued their support of the president.
"Huang's working experience overseas is internationally recognized, and NTNU should not overlook his credentials. We urged the university to give up its conservatism and support Huang's educational reforms," said TAUP president Tai Pao-tsun (
In response to the ongoing controversy, Education Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching