Nantou County commissioner candidate Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華), of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has been accused of plagiarism on a thesis, and the allegations are backed by plenty of evidence.
However, Feng Chia University’s academic ethics review committee has said that Hsu’s thesis did not seriously contravene academic ethics, so it did not revoke her degree, despite the document including passages that were apparently copied from other sources without citation.
On the other hand, former Democratic Progressive Party Taoyuan mayoral candidate Lin Chih-chien’s (林智堅) master’s degrees were revoked by National Taiwan University and Chung Hua University for plagiarism, which shows that universities have drastically different review processes and standards. The differences are beyond comprehension.
Lin’s case highlights a double standard at his alma maters, as the universities have handled other cases concerning academic ethics more leniently.
Due to the Ministry of Education’s ineffective regulations, academic ethics review committees lack a common standard and transparency.
The ministry should take full responsibility. Ministry officials, including Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠), Chief Secretary Liao Hsin-kuo (廖興國) and those in the Department of Higher Education, failed to act.
The ministry should take the issue seriously and take the initiative now, because it is better late than never.
The “Principles for Handling Academic Ethics Cases at Junior Colleges and Institutions of Higher Education” (專科以上學校學術倫理案件處理原則) should be amended immediately. Every review committee should include a member appointed by the ministry and a representative of the university’s faculty evaluation committee.
There is also no reason that the names of the committee members should be kept confidential, and their findings should be open to the public.
The reason is simple: Should, for example, lay judges be required to wear a mask to ensure that defendants and other attendants of trials cannot recognize them so that they cannot seek revenge? Of course not. It would also be unacceptable to inform those involved in a criminal trial of the court’s decision without providing the full verdict.
Should the person whose thesis is being reviewed by an ethics committee disagree with the result, they should be able to appeal directly to the ministry, rather than apply for another review by the university. The ministry should organize a standing reconsideration committee to investigate such cases. Once it finalizes a decision, the university should handle the case accordingly.
A special budget should be allotted for universities and colleges to assess the quality of their students’ theses and dissertations. In the first half of each year, all theses and dissertations of in-service degree programs should be examined, and in the second half, those of regular degree programs should be reviewed. The assessments should be handled impartially, and the ministry should be informed of the results.
These measures would help preserve the reputation of the higher education system and prevent plagiarism from taking center stage every election cycle.
It is imperative to review the system of recurrent education. If in-service master’s programs remain as popular as they are, the Degree Conferral Act (學位授予法) should be revised, and universities should be authorized to determine whether a thesis is required to complete master’s programs.
This would solve the problem once and for all.
Huang Rongwen is a professor at National Changhua University of Education.
Translated by Liu Yi-hung
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at
A few weeks ago in Kaohsiung, tech mogul turned political pundit Robert Tsao (曹興誠) joined Western Washington University professor Chen Shih-fen (陳時奮) for a public forum in support of Taiwan’s recall campaign. Kaohsiung, already the most Taiwanese independence-minded city in Taiwan, was not in need of a recall. So Chen took a different approach: He made the case that unification with China would be too expensive to work. The argument was unusual. Most of the time, we hear that Taiwan should remain free out of respect for democracy and self-determination, but cost? That is not part of the usual script, and