Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday that the government plans to recruit top professors by offering globally competitive wages as well as attract more international students as part of its effort to promote globalization.
Speaking at a national conference on nurturing talent, Siew said the government would step up its investment in education and increase the education budget each year.
The government will also recruit more international students by touting Taiwan's advantages in advanced education to other Southeast Asian nations, he said.
“The government will map out a comprehensive plan for nurturing, retaining and recruiting talent,” Siew said.
Globalization means every country is striving to recruit the best talent, he said, mentioning China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.
“Although Taiwan lacks natural resources, it has a wealth of outstanding talent,” Siew said.
The key to nation building is the government's ability to retain top human resources, whether locally or overseas trained, he said.
The government will take into consideration education, population and industrial policies as part of the process of charting the nation's development, the vice president said.
The plan will be designed on the basis of short, medium and long-term human resource needs, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education introduced a draft plan on recruiting and retaining top-quality university professors.
Under the proposal, the salaries of professors could be subsidized by the ministry's five-year allocation of NT$50 billion (US$1.56 billion) for the development of top-class universities, from special projects or from the National Science Council (NSC).
There will also be no cap on the pay offered, the proposal states.
“Allowing flexible salaries will help attract top teaching talent and boost Taiwan's international competitiveness,” NSC Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) said. “Taiwan cannot afford to be excluded from the world trend of recruiting the best talent.”
National Cheng Kung University president Michael Lai (賴明詔) agreed, saying the “salaries of Taiwan's teaching and research personnel are too low.”
“A salary increase will help attract the best,” Lai said. “Salary flexibility is crucial, although it will by no means suggest an across-the-board pay raise.”
The 150 representatives at the conference at the National Central Library also included Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠), Delta Electronics founder and chairman Bruce Cheng (鄭崇華), Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) and the presidents of several universities.
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the