Land from closed universities should remain in the hands of non-profit organizations, Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said yesterday.
“The law should be clarified to state that if a school ceases to accept students, but its board is not dissolved, it still has to operate as a non-profit foundation,” he said, adding that any revenue generated should not be transformed into “profits” belonging to individuals.
The foundations should still be required to engage in public benefit activities, he said, citing construction of affordable public housing as an example.
His comments follow speculation over how land belonging to closed universities is to be used.
Current ministry plans announced on Friday call for the closing or merging of up to one-third of universities in the face of a sharp decrease in student numbers caused by years of low birth rates.
Taiwan Higher Education Union secretary-general Chen Cheng-liang (陳政亮) on Friday criticized the ministry’s proposals, saying they failed to clearly specify the disposal of land owned by closed universities, leaving open the possibility for the process to become a source of massive corporate profits.
While the ministry has made clear that the restrictions schools face will be loosened as they are encouraged to “transition” and “innovate,” Wu yesterday declined to specify what kind of “transition” plans the ministry would approve, stating that “innovation” by definition needed to come from the bottom up.
Wu also promised to relieve the impact of the transition on teachers by requiring schools to increase their student-to-teacher ratios, preserving some positions as universities close and downsize.
Plans announced on Friday by the ministry were criticized by unions for only promising to establish a “platform” to help university faculty connect with and transition to jobs in other sectors.
Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀), director-general for the ministry’s technological and vocational education division, said the ministry is considering requiring universities to drop student-teacher ratios from the present 25-1, to either 24-1 or 23-1. Plans have yet to be finalized, she said.
Wu said the ministry would reduce the number of doctoral students universities were allowed to admit in order to relieve market pressure.
Current ministry plans call for doctoral student quotas to be reduced by 37 percent.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS