The Ministry of Education yesterday concluded that Huang Kuan-tsae (黃光彩), president of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), was not qualified to lead the school.
After a month-long investigation, the education ministry's selection committee concluded that Huang's one-year stint as president of SingaLab, a private research company under the supervision of the University of Singapore, did not meet the prerequisites needed to be NTNU's president.
"Huang's position at SingaLab, which is a private company, cannot be counted as experience in an educational institute," Vice Minister of Education Chou Tsan-te (周燦德) said at a press conference to announce the conclusion yesterday.
"Our review shows that Huang only served as a director in an educational institute for three years, which does not fulfill the Statute Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel (
In response to the announcement, Huang said at a press conference last night that the conclusion only reflected the differing points of view both sides hold regarding his qualifications.
He added that he will discuss the issue with his lawyers before deciding whether to sue the Ministry of Education.
At the ministry's press conference, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
"The Control Yuan did not ask the education ministry to review Huang's credentials until Jan. 24. It's only been three months since then, instead of nine months, and we have been working very hard to review all the documents provided by Huang," Tu said.
"Besides, I need to stress that it is NTNU's responsibility to carefully review Huang's credentials. My responsibility in selecting a university's president is to consider his or her vision for the university and in what direction he or she will lead the school," he added.
Tu also denied any close relationship with Huang and criticized the politicization of the issue.
"I didn't know Huang before his election to the university and there wasn't any political maneuvering involved in the matter until the rumor came out," Tu said.
"The only reason I appointed him is because I believed in his ability to lead educational reforms in the prestigious university and to improve NTNU's reputation internationally," he said.
According to the Statute Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel, university presidents are required to have a doctoral degree, and to have worked as a professor at a university, or to have served as chancellor or director of an educational institute for at least four years.
Huang worked as a senior manager at IBM's Watson Center for 18 years after receiving his PhD in electronic engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked as project manager at the Institute of Systems Science (ISS) at Singapore University from 1989 to 1992, before serving as president of SingaLab from 1992 to 1993.
While Huang's three years at ISS were accepted by the selection committee as being that of a director in an educational institution, committee members concluded that SingaLab is not an educational institution, and that his experience at an educational institute was therefore less than the required four years.
According to Chou, the education ministry will report the final decision to the Executive Yuan, which holds the power to decide when to officially remove Huang.
NTNU will need to form another selection committee to nominate and select a new president to succeed Huang.
Huang was elected as the president of NTNU last August. However, rumors about his credentials have been circulating ever since he started his term, and the ministry was forced to conduct an investigation into the matter.
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