Hiring ghostwriters to finish research papers, theses or dissertations has become a widespread phenomenon at Taiwanese universities, legislators said. They yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to come up with solutions to what they say is a growing problem.
"The ghostwriting of theses or dissertations has caused great damage to the quality of higher education. The [ministry] should take action to stop such a trend," said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (
During a press conference held to raise awareness about ghostwriting, Huang and three other DPP legislators, including Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬), Eva Hsieh (謝欣霓) and Winston Dang (陳重信), invited a graduate student and ministry officials to talk about the problem.
According to Hsieh, the ghostwriting of academic papers makes evident the lack of a thesis or dissertation review system at the nation's colleges and universities.
"Our institutes of higher learning should put more emphasis on oral exams and review of a student's academic performance," Hsieh said.
A Google.com search of college Bulletin Board System sites displayed at the press conference showed that information about thesis ghostwriting services or ghostwriter advertisements were easy to come by on the Internet.
"I have friends who ghostwrote theses or dissertations for other students or hire people to write their papers. [Ghostwriting] is becoming popular, and you can find everything about ghostwriting easily online," said the graduate student who wished to remain anonymous.
According to statistics from the ministry, the number of graduate schools has grown from 623 to 2,215 between 1994 and 2003. The quality of higher education, however, failed to keep pace with the growing number of school, the legislators said.
Responding to the criticism, Ma Hsiang-ping (
Since ghostwriting is considered cheating, students who hire someone to ghostwrite for them would be punished with expulsion, Ma said.
"In addition, we will ask colleges and universities to tighten their academic review system to prevent ghostwriting from taking place," Ma added.
According to the research done by the legislators, ghostwriting is popular among students in the liberal arts and business schools.
"Besides focusing more on oral examinations in the review process, replacing traditional dissertations with creative projects, such as performances or displays, could be an alternative to assessing a student's academic achievement," Cheng said.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
RSS