The Ministry of Education yesterday concluded that Huang Kuan-tsae (黃光彩), president of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), was not qualified to lead the school.
After a month-long investigation, the education ministry's selection committee concluded that Huang's one-year stint as president of SingaLab, a private research company under the supervision of the University of Singapore, did not meet the prerequisites needed to be NTNU's president.
"Huang's position at SingaLab, which is a private company, cannot be counted as experience in an educational institute," Vice Minister of Education Chou Tsan-te (周燦德) said at a press conference to announce the conclusion yesterday.
"Our review shows that Huang only served as a director in an educational institute for three years, which does not fulfill the Statute Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel (
In response to the announcement, Huang said at a press conference last night that the conclusion only reflected the differing points of view both sides hold regarding his qualifications.
He added that he will discuss the issue with his lawyers before deciding whether to sue the Ministry of Education.
At the ministry's press conference, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
"The Control Yuan did not ask the education ministry to review Huang's credentials until Jan. 24. It's only been three months since then, instead of nine months, and we have been working very hard to review all the documents provided by Huang," Tu said.
"Besides, I need to stress that it is NTNU's responsibility to carefully review Huang's credentials. My responsibility in selecting a university's president is to consider his or her vision for the university and in what direction he or she will lead the school," he added.
Tu also denied any close relationship with Huang and criticized the politicization of the issue.
"I didn't know Huang before his election to the university and there wasn't any political maneuvering involved in the matter until the rumor came out," Tu said.
"The only reason I appointed him is because I believed in his ability to lead educational reforms in the prestigious university and to improve NTNU's reputation internationally," he said.
According to the Statute Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel, university presidents are required to have a doctoral degree, and to have worked as a professor at a university, or to have served as chancellor or director of an educational institute for at least four years.
Huang worked as a senior manager at IBM's Watson Center for 18 years after receiving his PhD in electronic engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked as project manager at the Institute of Systems Science (ISS) at Singapore University from 1989 to 1992, before serving as president of SingaLab from 1992 to 1993.
While Huang's three years at ISS were accepted by the selection committee as being that of a director in an educational institution, committee members concluded that SingaLab is not an educational institution, and that his experience at an educational institute was therefore less than the required four years.
According to Chou, the education ministry will report the final decision to the Executive Yuan, which holds the power to decide when to officially remove Huang.
NTNU will need to form another selection committee to nominate and select a new president to succeed Huang.
Huang was elected as the president of NTNU last August. However, rumors about his credentials have been circulating ever since he started his term, and the ministry was forced to conduct an investigation into the matter.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS