The Ministry of Education yesterday said it would discipline universities that have recognized credits earned by students on academic exchanges in China.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) told the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee that the ministry would not recognize any academic credits from China, though it encourages cross-strait academic exchanges.
Wu said Taiwan does not recognize Chinese credentials or credits and that universities that recognized credits earned in China were violating the law.
The minister’s comment came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said Tamkang University last year started recognizing credits earned by students on exchanges in China.
Kuan said Tamkang accepted the credits on the condition that the academic departments the students were affiliated with agreed.
Kuan said Tunghai University told teachers they could bypass the ban on Chinese credits by having teachers give students final grades for coursework done in China upon returning to Taiwan.
The ministry later confirmed Kuan’s claims about Tamkang, but rebutted those concerning Tunghai, while vowing to censure the former.
Tamkang University said in a press release last night that it had since last year allowed students to apply for the “transfer” of credits they earned on exchanges in China. But it said it did not recognize academic credits from China.
Meanwhile, the minister rebutted criticism that the president had broken a campaign promise to increase the annual education budget.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the president had pledged to raise the budget by 0.2 percent of GDP per year, or approximately NT$24 billion (US$742.6 million). The budget request for education next year was NT$479.4 billion, up only NT$10.5 billion, Chen said.
But Wu said the budget request should have been NT$9.7 billion lower as there was a NT$40 billion drop in tax revenues this year. The ministry still raised the budget by NT$10.5 billion, Wu said.
In related developments, Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsung-ming (林聰明) said the ministry did not recommend that youths play a popular Facebook game called Happy Farm because “stealing” vegetables is unethical.
Wu said the ministry would suggest that the developer of the game modify it by having players “rent” rather than “steal” vegetables from other players.
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