Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) yesterday urged college students nationwide to review their attitude toward learning after a ministry evaluator criticized students at the nation’s top medical school, calling them undisciplined.
Wu’s remark came after Daisy Hung (洪蘭), director of National Central University’s Graduate Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said in an article published in the Chinese-language CommonWealth magazine recently that during a ministry inspection trip at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Medicine, she saw students arrive late for classes, doze off, eat instant noodles or drumsticks, watch TV on their laptops or send text messages to their friends during class.
Hung, an NTU alumni, said she was very surprised to find that the students did not respect their classmates or the teachers.
“With college student attitudes like these, how are we going to compete with others?” Hung said in the article. “If you don’t want to study hard, why not yield the opportunity of learning to other people who really want to learn?”
Offering support to the criticism made by Hung, Wu said many professors had complained that students in Taiwan had become less hard-working, with the majority of students staying up late and deliberately not attending classes early in the morning.
Wu said college students in Taiwan should cherish the opportunity to learn since the government has spent a large amount of money funding higher education.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
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