The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Degree Conferral Act (學位授予法), with one to allow graduate or doctoral students pursuing a degree in sports, the arts or applied science to present their work, certificates and a written report, or a technical report instead of writing a dissertation.
The act previously allowed the exceptions only for graduates seeking an arts or applied-science degree.
The amendments stipulate that the criteria to be met in the work, certificates and reports are to be defined by each university at faculty meetings.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
An amendment to the act to allow intercollegiate recognition of credits was also passed.
Universities may confer a degree upon students who have earned enough credits to graduate if they have passed courses in fields related to their major that are offered by colleges other than their own, the amendment stipulates.
The definition of related fields is to be decided by each institute, the amendment says.
Another change to the act would give university students in collaborative internship programs between their university and the private sector the option to suspend their studies and apply for a job as part of an associate degree.
Candidates who are approved according to the policy would need to have studied at a university for two academic years, have earned 80 credits and passed an evaluation, the amendment says.
To earn a bachelor’s degree, students must return to university once the period they applied for to suspend their studies expires, it says.
Meanwhile, penalties for students who have someone else write their thesis have been raised.
Postgraduate students who are found to have gotten another person to write their theses were previously subject to a fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million (US$6,491 and US$32,455), which was collected by the Ministry of Education.
The amendment raised the minimum fine to NT$300,000, while the maximum fine was unchanged.
To complement the new rules, the penalty is also to apply to graduate and doctoral students who present a portfolio, certificates and written report — should any of the items be forged or contain plagiarized information — instead of working on a thesis, with the fine to be collected by their university.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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