Liberty Times (LT): What are your thoughts on the controversies surrounding the nominations of university president candidates at National Yang Ming University, Kaohsiung Medical University, Chinese Culture University and National Taiwan University (NTU)? Is the system flawed?
Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村): The National Yang Ming University incident is centered around the eligibility of teaching staff for the position. For example, can an associate professor become a university president?
The conflict at Kaohsiung Medical University is a tussle between the board, the school, its founder and the school’s alumni, and is not directly related to the school’s regulations on the election of university president.
Chinese Culture University’s problem was caused by its board members backing out of the process on the grounds that the chairman had not followed the university’s electoral rules.
The issue at NTU is a new sort of controversy, centered around providing information and a potential conflict of interest between the university and corporations due to the candidate’s status as an independent director at Taiwan Mobile, a situation that has not been written down in the rules for electing the university’s president.
In the aforementioned controversies there is, in some cases, an evident lack of mutual trust within the university and forces outside the university are poised to strike.
In others, the schools have made exaggerated interpretations of the procedures and demanded additional concessions, which could not be directly blamed on the rules regulating the election for a university president.
In terms of NTU, it is a new kind of controversy regarding whether a candidate has divulged sufficient information and the problem of a conflict of interest. It has never been seen before, but now that we have encountered it, we should amend the regulations to avoid such incidents.
We should devise a master plan for the development of higher education that would provide a method, or at least a general direction, to clearly separate academia, the corporate sector and politics.
LT: NTU is to convene an extraordinary university council meeting. What are your thoughts on how it should resolve the dispute?
Huang: The university should first disband the NTU president election committee. The committee was established with the authorization of the university affairs council and it is only appropriate that in light of current problems, the issue should return to the highest establishment in the university — the university affairs council. That is the spirit of university autonomy.
When the NTU president election committee should be disbanded is another question. The regulations do not give a time frame for such an event.
The regulations should have a basic principle on how to define and avoid a conflict of interest.
The NTU president election committee should be automatically disbanded the moment the university hands the name of the president-elect to the Ministry of Education. Should any controversy arise from the president-elect, the issue would then be handled by the council, and not the committee.
I suggest that when universities make such amendments to regulations regarding the election of their presidents, they should stipulate clear regulations on what sort of information nominees should provide to prevent the kind of controversial spat at NTU.
LT: Some people have said that a university’s president should be elected behind closed doors to allow those with true ability to shine. Should the nation’s universities adopt such a system?
Huang: There are many different methods and procedures on how to select the president of a university while taking into account the privacy of information of the candidate, as well as the autonomy of the university.
Universities in the US and Europe tend to focus on candidates with international prestige and offer decent pay, even if the offer is somewhat flexible. This allows the universities to look for talented individuals worldwide and it is also the basis for closed-door selections.
Not all universities — or nations — have such capabilities. Universities in Japan, for example, have a committee name all possible candidates before its election committee determines the actual nominees, at which point the nominees are made pubic and a schoolwide vote is held.
University presidents in Taiwan used to be appointed by the government and people considered for presidency at NTU would have to be approved by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee before being allowed to join the second stage of the election.
Today, candidates are selected according to the amended University Act (大學法) and the names of the nominees are then given to the University Affairs Council for confirmation.
How a university selects its president should be regarded as the purview of the university in line with the concept of university autonomy and the government should not intervene as long as the selection processes does not violate the law.
We should respect democratic process at universities, which they have developed. While there is still room for improvement, it is not necessary to amend laws to usher in such improvements. The government should simply issue policies and, if need be, clarify those policies.
However, the most important thing is that the universities should respect themselves.
LT: How should the public view the relations between the corporate sector and universities, in light of the controversy at NTU?
Huang: On a yearly basis, the public and the corporate sector donate about NT$50 billion (US$1.7 billion), or 0.4 percent of GDP. Most of the donations are made in small sums and mainly made out to religious entities, welfare associations and charities.
Donations to universities are mostly concentrated on national universities such as NTU, National Chung Kung University, National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University, with NTU taking the lion’s share.
Government funding for the nation’s higher education sector stands at 2.1 percent of GDP, but this amount must be distributed among 145 universities in the nation.
Added to the watered-down funding is the issue of declining birthrate and a rigid system allowing little flexibility to address issues such as low tuition fees.
If companies were willing to donate large amounts of money to universities, in their own name or under a foundation, it would provide a solution, as the corporate sector is far larger than the higher education sector. However, this must be based on mutual consensus.
Everyone would want more donations and often look at the US Ivy League schools in envy. However, there should be regulations in place, such as forbidding universities to sell institutes or affiliated establishments, as well as prohibiting donors from intervening in university affairs.
However, for universities to increase the amount of public donations, it would be wise to remain flexible and, for the time being, set out basic standard regulations instead of aspiring to set down minute regulations of great moral standards.
After all, no corporation would wish to be made fun of if they were donating to a particular university.
LT: Lawmakers have been concerned about NTU’s election of its president and have talked of proposing legislation to address such issues. What are your thoughts on how to draw a “red line” between politics and university autonomy?
Huang: The right to speak freely, teach, write and publish within the university are constitutionally guaranteed. Universities’ academic freedom is protected by the University Act and their autonomy of governance is enshrined in law.
Even so, a university is still a public institution and must answer to the law; there is no gray area or middle ground. Just as academic freedom must be reined in by academic ethics, so too must university autonomy fall within parameters of publicity and legitimacy. However, this must be done in proportion; the government should not seek to excessively tie down universities with legislation.
While the Legislative Yuan could, within its purview and authority, express an opinion on the spirit of academic freedom and university autonomy, NTU should ultimately seek to reach a consensus within the university and handle the issue through proper procedures.
The university does not necessarily have to heed opinions from individual lawmakers or commentary from certain parties that belie a certain opinion.
While the crux of the incident seems to be a lack of information and a potential conflict of interest, the actual issue that would have lasting and deep affect is that the university has made known its vulnerability, and this presents a chance for certain factions to make a move against NTU and the platform it represents.
While the reformists at NTU have strongly — and often — pushed for internal reforms, the university has mainly focused on the world and Taiwan.
If power struggles like this force NTU’s gaze inwards, it would eventually grind the university down from the inside. That is what everyone should be worried about.
Translated by staff writer Jake Chung
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