Three Taiwanese universities, citing flexibility of course management, improved learning quality and efforts to comply with international standards, recently applied to the Ministry of Education to shorten their semester lengths to 15 weeks.
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology vice president Juang Rong-huay (莊榮輝) said officials from his school, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University met recently to discuss the issue.
Taiwanese universities’ 18-week semester is the “longest semester” in the world, he said. “Some countries’ universities have just a 12 to 15-week semester.”
University officials attending the meeting agreed that longer semesters did not necessarily lead to students learning more or quality learning, Juang added.
Adopting a 15-week semester would allow the schools to offer summer courses, although the schools are currently leaning toward outdoor or less formal courses, he said.
Changing the length of the three schools’ semesters could affect the schedule of other schools, which is why the trio are hoping to propose the issue at next year’s National University and Vocational School Presidents’ Meeting, Juang said.
The three also discussed the possibility of undergraduate or graduate students being fast-tracked for graduate or doctorate programs if they have good grades and could be potential researchers by eliminating the need for them to take entrance exams, he said.
Some students only take lab classes in their senior year, or are very late in deciding that they want to continue with graduate studies, so we hope to make it easier for exceptional students that fall in this category, Juang added.
However, the Ministry of Education’s K-12 Education Administration said that universities would have to ensure that students meet the Enforcement Rules of the University Act (大學法施行細則) standards of 18 hours of classtime counting as one credit if they wish to shorten their semesters.
The universities must ensure that professors have sufficient class hours, protect students’ right to learn and ensure the quality of classes, the agency said.
Universities would also have to obtain majority consent from faculty and students before implementating such a move, it said.
The University Act (大學法) provides a legal basis for undergraduates or graduates moving directly into doctoral programs, so people with a bachelor’s degree who want to move directly into a master’s program have to apply individually, it added.
The agency said it would consider whether undergraduates should be able to enter master’s programs without an exam.
Additional reporting by Hsu Po-hsuan
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