The Ministry of Education yesterday rejected allegations that it was forcing universities to delay student graduations to prevent the already high unemployment rate from rising further.
Department of Higher Education Director-General Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛) said it was “impossible” for the ministry to interfere in the matter because universities had the autonomy to evaluate when their students were qualified for graduation.
A day earlier, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) accused the ministry of instructing universities to decrease the pass rate among senior students to delay their graduation.
He said the measure was aimed at controlling the unemployment rate, which climbed to 5.94 percent last month.
Wu Jui-ying (吳睿穎), executive vice president of 1111 Job Bank, said the graduation of one-third of the senior students at National Taiwan University (NTU) had been delayed this year.
While only 2.68 percent of the students did so voluntarily out of fear of entering the job market at such a difficult time, the rest were flunked by their professors, Wu said.
Ho said their claims were not grounded in fact and that there had not been any significant change in the number of students who have delayed their graduation over the past several years.
In the 2007-2008 academic year — the latest year for which data are available — 47,127 students delayed graduation, marking only a slight increase from 47,094 in the 2006-2007 academic year and 46,897 in 2005-2006, Ho said.
Although the data for the this academic year will not be available until October, Ho predicted that the number would be similar to previous years.
Meanwhile, NTU officials said 1,034 students delayed graduation in the 2007-2008 academic year, accounting for 29 percent of the total number who were supposed to graduate that year.
Their reasons for delaying graduation were as follows: 176 still had to finish minor courses or double degree programs, 17 had unfinished intramural courses, 77 took part in exchange programs overseas, while more than 700 were preparing for entrance examinations for graduate schools, the officials said.
NTU spokesman Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩) said the numbers were reasonable.
Liao, a former director of the Taipei City Government’s cultural bureau during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) stint as Taipei mayor, said qualified students were completely free to graduate whenever they chose, so long as it was within the maximum allowed period of study.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS