Dozens of students yesterday demonstrated outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei, protesting its decision to allow universities to independently decide whether to raise tuition fees for graduate programs. The students expressed concern that the decision may result in a increase in fees for graduate students.
In a conference meeting with university and college presidents from across the nation last month, Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) said that school administrations would be free to decide whether to raise tuition fees for graduate programs, making many students worried that they may become an “ATM” for their schools.
“When students finish their degree, they go out and contribute to society based on what they have learned at school. Students should not be the ones who shoulder the rising costs of education,” said Chang Wen-hua (張文華), a graduate student at Taipei National University of the Arts and a representative of the Alliance Against Commoditization of Education. “Instead, the government should collect capital gains tax from businesses to fill universities’ financial gap, as most students go on to work for businesses after graduation.”
Photo: CNA
Chang said that graduate students are already suffering from cuts in research funds and that “things would only get worse for us if tuition fees go up and research budgets are cut.”
“We would become academic slave workers,” she added.
“I get a research budget of about NT$3,000 [US$101] a month, but 10 years ago, the amount was NT$8,000,” said Wang Chun-fang (王淳芳), a graduate student at National Chengchi University.
“With little budget and higher tuition fees, we will be forced to work multiple part-time jobs. How are we supposed to focus on our studies and do our research?” she asked.
Responding to the students’ protest, Department of Higher Education deputy director Ma Hsiang-ping (馬湘萍) said that because graduate school is not part of mandatory education, “it’s reasonable that the government, the school and the students should share the costs.”
“We are not likely to change the policy direction at the moment,” she said. “However, I don’t think universities are planning to raise tuition fees for graduate students, because competition is fierce because the number of children is declining each year.”
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS