The Ministry of Education yesterday said it was mulling a legal amendment to allow professors to serve as presidents of private companies.
Director of the ministry’s Department of Technological and Vocational Education Lin Teng-jiao (林騰蛟) told reporters that the ministry could propose an amendment to the Act Governing the Employment of Educational Personnel (教育人員任用條例) allowing professors to set up companies or double as presidents of private enterprises.
Lin said representatives from academic circles broadly agreed during a preparatory meeting ahead of a national educational meeting to lifting the ban on university and college teachers taking up full-time positions in the corporate world.
Article 34 of the act bars full-time personnel from teaching part-time or working part-time outside the school that employs them.
Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀), deputy director of the department, said 70 percent of research and innovation talent were working at universities.
If university teachers were also allowed to work in the corporate sector, they could turn their research into products and help stimulate the economy, Lee said.
The ministry made the announcement after Chen Yuan-tsong (陳垣崇), director of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, was released on NT$600,000 bail on Tuesday after being questioned by prosecutors in a corruption investigation.
Chen is suspected of transferring his patented technologies for producing genetic-based diagnostic tests to Phamigene — a biomedical company in which he serves as honorary founder — that then sold two test products to Academia Sinica through two government procurement bids for a total value of NT$15 million (US$467,000).
Prosecutors said Chen’s wife is also a manager at the company.
Under the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), procurement staff or supervisors must withdraw if they or their spouses, blood relatives or relatives by marriage who live with or share property with them, have vested interests in the a particular procurement.
Prosecutors said Chen may have violated the act and was under investigation.
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