Following media reports last month that thesis topics of some students at Chung Chou University of Science and Technology’s Graduate Institute of Engineering Technology in Changhua County were unrelated to their major, the Ministry of Education temporarily suspended the institute’s student recruitment for the next academic year.
Some of the theses’ themes ranged from fortune-telling, night markets and teachers’ sense of humor to satisfaction with community volunteers.
Later, there were reports that the thesis topics of some students at Chienkuo Technology University’s Graduate Institute of Electronic Engineering and Graduate Institute of Mechatronoptic Systems in Changhua City were also unrelated to their major. The themes ranged from magic charms, amethysts and the pressure relief effects of fountains to the quality of food and service at a hot-pot restaurant.
The ministry said that it would invite academics and experts to investigate the problem, while also suspending student recruitment at Chienkuo Technology University.
The university said that these theses were cross-disciplinary studies conducted by students who were on the technology management team some years ago and that there would no longer be such studies after the thesis adviser, who was jointly employed by the Graduate Institute of Electronic Engineering and the College of Management, retired in July.
The university stressed that it would conduct a thorough review, while demanding that master’s theses in all departments comply with the institute’s educational goals.
From now on, graduate students must propose a research plan before starting a thesis, and they can only start working on them after approval at a department curriculum meeting. This all sounds good, but it cannot hide the utter chaos in Taiwan’s institutes of higher education.
There are many extremely ambiguous areas in higher education in the nation, the most obvious being “social science” at technology management-related departments and institutes. Enrollment in such courses can be divided into two types: regular and on-the-job students. The research methodologies include qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires.
Thesis advisers are from all kinds of disciplines and almost any theme imaginable is covered by this broad community, which produces thousands or even tens of thousands of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations each year. This is also why Taiwan has the highest density of theses and dissertations in the world.
The purpose and format of academic papers originated abroad. After entering Taiwan, this process has been distorted. All that is needed for a thesis to be approved and the student to be given their degree is that it fulfills demands on format and logic, and is endorsed by three advisers.
This is also why trivial issues are being exaggerated in theses, not to mention that the interested parties are able to receive research funds from government agencies and academic units.
The result of the chaos in higher education is that it serves as a “diploma mill,” wasting taxpayers’ money and hurting the nation’s development.
Modern governments have subsidies from birth to retirement in the hope of training future leaders, but if one day national annual revenue and output is insufficient, people will suffer, but it would be too late to review the policy.
Fang Fu-chuan is an international trader.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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