President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said that the success or failure of university education is a key factor that determines a nation's competitiveness. With a rapid increase in the number of domestic universities within the past decade, university education has evolved from the old notion of "education for the elite" to a more public-oriented system, he added.
Facing a highly open and competitive education market, universities should refrain from excessive expansion and malicious competition, Chen said, warning that the resulting waste in precious education resources, the drop in the quality of education and the imbalance in manpower supply and demand could have negative impacts on society.
Chen went on to urge domestic universities to upgrade their adult education programs and promote courses that will allow working professionals to conveniently sharpen their collective competitive edge so as to be able to adapt to the needs of a rapidly changing economic environment.
Universities are also charged with the mission of promoting the stable development of the economy and a democratic political landscape, thereby guiding the society toward cultural progress, he said.
At the meeting, the heads of the state-funded universities issued an emergency statement urging the nation's lawmakers to refrain from cutting education items from the government budget for fiscal year 2001.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Ovid Tzeng (
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