Some of the nation’s leading academics have expressed concern about what they called the state of increasingly “vulgarized” university education, which aims only to churn out graduates to satisfy job market demand.
During a meeting at Academia Sinica on Monday, Chi Tsung (季淳), a visiting professor at National Chengchi University, said he was anxious, angry and uneasy about the quality of Taiwanese talent in the future.
He said that the government should take the initiative in improving liberal arts education and cultivate ways of nurturing leaders for different sectors of society.
Chi said Taiwan’s higher education is increasingly “job market-oriented” and “vulgarized.”
Liberal arts education should teach students “how to study,” how to achieve “self-enlightening knowledge” and give them the “ability to make bold decisions,” Chi said.
Most important, students should enjoy engaging themselves in lifetime learning, Chi said.
An ideal liberal arts university would have only three colleges, 14 departments, a 100 member-faculty and a student body of 1,000, Chi said.
The three colleges and their departments would be: humanities, with literature, history, philosophy, arts and music departments; science, with mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology departments; and social sciences, with political science, sociology, anthropology and economics departments.
He cited as examples Williams College in the US and Singapore’s Yale-NUS College, which aim to cultivate hundreds of future leaders in various sectors in the coming decades.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), recalling his year at Harvard University, said it was a “feast” that he has been enjoying ever since.
Chang said his approximately 100 classmates in his dormitory came from different backgrounds, each with their own specialties, interests and hobbies.
Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) said it would not be easy for Taiwan to adopt the Singaporean model, which charges NT$1.67 million (US$56,000) per year, compared with Taiwan’s public university fees of little over NT$50,000 a year.
What would be feasible for Taiwan would be to promote liberal arts courses in its roughly 160 universities. First of all, he said, such courses should not be thought of as giving “easy” credits. A good liberal arts course should teach students to be good human beings and good citizens before they become good professionals, Chiang said.
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) yesterday said that private-sector refiners are willing to stop buying Russian naphtha should the EU ask them to, after a group of non-governmental organizations, including the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), criticized the nation’s continued business with the country. While Taiwan joined the US and its Western allies in putting broad sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, it did not explicitly ban imports of naphtha, a major hard-currency earner for Russia. While state-owned firms stopped importing Russian oil in 2023, there is no restriction on private companies to
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS