A growing number of companies are offering to ghostwrite dissertations for graduate students, PhD candidates and professors, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said yesterday, describing the practice as potentially harmful to education in Taiwan.
Huang told a press conference that his office found at least eight companies on the Internet providing ghostwriting services to academics.
The ghostwriters charge about NT$70,000 for a master’s thesis or a thesis for publication in periodicals; more than NT$100,000 for a National Science Council (NSC) report; NT$350,000 for a thesis at Science Citation Index or Social Sciences Citation Index level; and more than NT$400,000 for a doctoral dissertation, Huang said.
The practice could constitute an offence of fraud, said Wang Ming-yuan (王明源), senior executive officer of the Ministry of Education’s department of higher education, adding that the ministry would send suspected cases to the judiciary.
It would not be possible for the ministry to proactively probe such cases, Wang said, adding that the ministry urges people to report any such offense they are aware of to the authorities.
If students or academics used the ghostwriting service, schools are entitled to revoke students’ diplomas, Wang said.
Professors who paid for their promotion dissertations would be reprimanded and would not be promoted, he added.
Professors who had reports written by others in their name would be stripped of all funding for their research projects and would be banned for several years from applying for project subsidies, said Chen Tsun-chuan (陳宗權), director of the NSC’s central processing department.
“We have not received any reports so far of academics using ghostwriting services,” Chen said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS