A National Tsing Hua University student on Monday began a hunger strike to protest what he said was a flawed decisionmaking process regarding the university’s merger with National Hsinchu University of Education, which officially began yesterday.
Hsu Guangcheng (徐光成), former president of the Tsing Hua Students’ Association, has been fasting since 6pm on Monday, drinking only water to prevent himself from falling seriously ill.
Hsu said that Tsing Hua officials ignored students’ and faculty’s objections to the merger and dodged questions regarding the school’s staffing and funding after the merger.
Hsu demanded that Tsing Hua president Hocheng Hong (賀陳弘) renounce and apologize for arbitrarily changing a proposal on the merger and for saying that he has the final decision on whether the proposal should be submitted to the university’s management for review.
“The proposal was passed after bypassing due procedures,” Hsu said, calling on the Ministry of Education to intervene and order Tsing Hua to rescind the merger and urging officials, faculty and students attending a meeting next week to veto a proposal to amend the university’s articles of association.
Hsu and the university have different interpretations of the university’s handling of the merger, Tsing Hua Office of Students’ Affairs director Hsieh Hsiao-ling (謝小苓) said.
Hsieh urged Hsu not to harm himself to express his opinions, saying that the school was open to dialogue.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
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Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the