The evaluation system for universities and colleges has been reduced to an empty formalism, giving rise to sycophancy and feigned compliance, according to a survey conducted by the Taiwan Higher Education Union, a trade union comprised of faculty and staff from the nation’s institutes of higher education.
“The policy is well-intended, but after implementation [in 2006], it has drawn heated criticism and complaints from teachers. As a trade union, we are calling on the government to suspend the project and put it under thorough examination,” said Tai Po-fen (戴伯芬), the union’s chairperson and a sociology professor at Fu Jen Catholic University.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Education to develop and carry out the university evaluation system, the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan completed the project’s first phase by evaluating 1,908 departments at 79 institutes in 2010.
Phase two — to qualify students’ performances and educational effectiveness — began this year.
Using online questionnaires, the council collected 701 valid samples from faculty and staff of higher education institutions, and found that more than 83 percent of the respondents believed the system did nothing to improve teaching quality, while more than 88 percent said their research work and teaching performances were severely compromised by the system. Overall, about 83 percent of respondents did not support the project and said it should be discontinued.
The survey also found the main reason for teachers’ resentment against the system is that it has become a mere formality and a waste of time and resources. More than 80 percent of the respondents said committee members were “opinionated” and “lacked professionalism.”
Chou Ping (周平), chair of Nan Hua University’s Department of Applied Sociology, said fawning behavior has become a common sight on campuses. For example, when members of the evaluation and accreditation committee visited his school, faculty were asked to “line the road to welcome them with cheerful smiles,” accompanied by the school’s drumming troupe.
Moreover, in order to “meet the committee’s expectations,” department heads and management simply borrowed others’ reports that had passed the evaluation rather than actually creating material suitable for a particular department, Chou said.
“The bureaucratic despotism of the ministry has brought out the worst in people. It lets the vices of humanity grow and thrive,” he added.
Tai said students at her school were given notes with answers to the questions the commissioners might ask in relation to the school’s educational goals.
“They even put flags on campus that contained hints and clues to the right answers,” Tai said.
Chou said the system has singlehandedly destroyed general education programs because in order to make the number of professors “satisfactory,” schools chose to dissolve general education centers and transfer faculty members to departments that are deemed more important.
To Chen Cheng-liang (陳政亮), assistant professor of the Shih Hsin University’s Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, the ministry’s top-down approach to policy-making is the reason the system is failing.
“It only makes sense that each department or discipline should have its own evaluation system,” he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS