National Taiwan University (NTU) president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has since 2005 been teaching students at Xiamen University and other schools in China in violation of laws governing public school instructors, a source said.
Recruitment materials created for students from Macau and Hong Kong in the university’s doctorate program in finance lists Kuan as an adjunct instructor, the source said, adding that this violates the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
The school’s Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics also lists Kuan as a course adviser for several economics and finance courses, and the 2008 and 2011 archived Web pages for the institute list him as a part-time instructor and academic supervisor for graduate students, they said.
A call to the institute by a Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reporter on Friday confirmed that Kuan is responsible for the school’s international doctoral students in finance and that he travels there two or three times every year for up to a month at a time.
“This year should be the same — [he will] continue teaching courses [here],” an institute staff member said.
An English-language version of Kuan’s resume that he submitted to Thailand’s Chiang Mai University said that he has worked for Xiamen University since April 2005, for Huazhong University of Science and Technology since October 2006 and for Xian Jiaotong University since June 2007.
The same information appeared in an English-language resume posted to NTU’s Web site in 2015, but the Chinese universities were removed from the Chinese-language version, the source said.
After several calls from Taiwanese media outlets yesterday, the institute changed its response and began telling reporters that Kuan only gave unpaid speeches at the school, and was not employed as an instructor, the source said.
The Ministry of Education confirmed that full-time instructors are prohibited from taking up posts in China, according to the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例) and the Principles Governing the Handling of Part-time Employment by Full-time Instructors at Public Schools of All Levels (公立各級學校專任教師兼職處理原則).
“Whether the work is full-time or part-time, either way it is not permitted,” it said.
All academic exchanges with schools in China require a signed agreement between the Chinese school and a Taiwanese school, and the submission of a report to the ministry, as stipulated by the cross-strait relations act, they said.
Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said he would seek clarification from NTU on Kuan’s part-time work in China, and would handle the issue according to the school’s regulations governing instructors who work part-time.
Kuan could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.
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