National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) recently passed a resolution to provide a “living subsidy” to newly employed foreign professors to encourage them to stay with the university.
The university board agreed after a meeting on Friday to offer NT$100,000 to all newly recruited foreign professors for their first year.
Human resource director Lin Shu-tuan (林淑端) said university president Guo Yih-shun (郭義雄) had instructed the department to avail themselves of a similar plan offered by National Taiwan University (NTU).
Guo said many department directors had told him that both NTU and National Chengchi University were offering similar subsidies to attract foreign teachers.
“Although salary is not the only concern for academics [working in Taiwan], the school has been unable to recruit or retain distinguished academics, while other universities have improved their offers,” he said.
Newly employed foreign assistant professors, associate professors and professors will receive the grant after teaching at the university for three months.
“Given the high rent and commodity prices in Taipei, very few teachers are able to save money or concentrate on their research during their first year,” Lin said.
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