Acting Minister of Education Yao Leeh-ter (姚立德) yesterday said the decision to have National Taiwan University (NTU) elect a new president would not be affected by former minister of education Wu Maw-kuen’s (吳茂昆) resignation on Tuesday, adding that he would complete any unfinished work left by Wu.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) asked Yao if he has the role’s full authority until a new minister is appointed and if he would handle the university’s presidential issue differently.
Yao said that he does have all the position’s power and that the university’s case would be handled as previously planned.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Asked about the progress to implement curriculum guidelines for the 12-year national education system, which are under review by the Ministry of Education’s curriculum guidelines review committee, Yao said that everything would progress as originally planned and would not be affected by Wu’s resignation.
The ministry would do its best to promote education policies and ensure that its operations are unaffected during the transition period, he added.
The ministry on April 27 rejected the appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), who was elected president of the university on Jan. 5, citing his role as as an independent director and a member of the salary and auditing committees at Taiwan Mobile while serving as a professor, which it said resulted in the election being compromised due to a conflict of interest.
The university on May 12 decided at a school affairs meeting that it would urge the ministry to approve Kuan’s election and that it would take legal action if necessary.
The ministry has since reiterated that the university should hold a new election.
Kuan was originally scheduled to take office on Feb. 1.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
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