Late last month, the Ministry of Education released the “Implementation principles for the faculty employment of full-time contract teachers at junior colleges and institutions of higher education” (專科以上學校進用編制外專任教學人員實施原則), which are to take effect on Aug. 1.
The rules cover 13 articles and are expected to promote the rights of contract teachers outside the regular system, and such efforts are to be lauded. However, the age limit for employment of teachers embodied in the rules might have a serious impact on the nation’s academic development.
As Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the rules states, the age limit for contract teachers shall follow the example of regular teachers. In other words, contract teachers cannot extend their contracts once they reach the age of 70.
Generally speaking, retirement at the age of 65 should be a quite reasonable arrangement, but for some high-performing academics, if they continue to advance and remain active academically in their later years, they are still key assets for educational institutions. This is why such institutions employ senior professors through “industry-university cooperation” or donations of funding. Since they are not employed with government funds, they become contract teachers outside the regular system.
Under the new rules, many universities would no longer be able to employ those senior professors who play an important role in academia. National Tsing Hua University, where I teach, would have to suspend contracts with more than 10 Academia Sinica members and “national chair professors.” The impact of this would be huge.
Distinguished senior professors are highly respected across the world, and this is why the ministry added a clause about the age limit in the new rules, stating that this is not applicable to foreign academics who are approved by the ministry’s projects, as it allows universities to recruit international talent older than 70 in certain cases.
However, if universities can recruit foreign academics who have exceeded the age limit through the ministry’s “Yushan Fellow Program” (玉山學者計畫), why can they not also recruit equally or even more outstanding Academia Sinica members or national chair professors who have exceeded the age limit? Is this reasonable? The ministry should immediately seek a remedy.
The ministry should amend the rules by expanding the scope of exemption from foreign academics who are approved by the ministry’s projects to Academia Sinica members, national chair professors and winners of the ministry’s academic awards. Academia Sinica members enjoy high academic status, while chair professors and winners of academic awards are already formally recognized by the ministry.
As for a longer term approach, the ministry should listen to the opinions of universities and amend the regulations to give schools more flexibility in hiring the personnel that they need. By doing so, the two sides can achieve a win-win situation of protecting contract teachers’ rights and putting the right person in the right place, which is what the ministry intended.
Chen Sinn-wen is senior vice president of National Tsing Hua University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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