Liberty Times (LT): There have been controversies surrounding the selections of heads of a number of universities, especially the one at the National Taiwan University (NTU) [involving president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔)] that was roiled by allegations of an undisclosed conflict of interest with a presidential election committee member and illegal part-time work in China. NTU responded to criticism by citing academic autonomy. What are your thoughts?
Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠): Incontestably, academic freedom and university self-governance are legally guaranteed. However, Article 1 of the University Act (大學法) clearly states: “Universities shall be guaranteed academic freedom and shall enjoy autonomy within the range of laws and regulations.”
Universities should create their own internal regulations and operate within proper legal bounds. They should not, and cannot, exaggerate their legal right into an absolute or consider themselves above the law.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Take the election of university presidents. A university might institute self-governing articles for holding elections. National Yang-Ming University has a single-tier process mainly controlled by its presidential election committee, while the National Taiwan University has a two-tier process where the school affairs meeting and its election committee play a role. Both these self-governing articles do not supersede or contradict the regulations governing the election of presidents of national universities, the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例) or other laws.
Moreover, the Ministry of Education is empowered by the University Act (大學法) to have final say in the appointment of university presidents. The ministry is the regulatory authority and responsible for verifying the legality of the electoral process, of its result and of the self-governing articles themselves. With this clarification, we can see that there is no contradiction between university autonomy and the ministry’s responsibility of legal oversight. Rather than singling out a school or an individual, it is a guarantee for the legality and reasonableness of that self-governance.
LT: What are your thoughts regarding the allegations that the NTU president-elect’s candidacy was invalid because he did illegal part-time work in China?
Pan: College professors should not break the rules when doing part-time work, and they certainly should not break the law. People with a full-time professorship at a public university are not allowed to take on full-time or part-time professorships in China, in accordance with the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Each university is responsible for investigating complaints against its professors thoroughly and transparently. The ministry’s role is to inform a university of its responsibilities to investigate and then to examine whether its handling of the issue is in compliance with its self-governing articles and the law. When a university fails to follow the law, it contravenes the proper bonds of self-governance.
LT: Does the ministry have plans to amend the University Act in response to the current situation?
Pan: It is our sense that the laws and regulations need to be more specific regarding the examination of the qualifications of university presidential candidates, electoral transparency and definitions of conflict of interest. This would involve amending the University Act and regulations governing the operations of university presidential election committees.
A task force has been organized to address these concerns and we plan to amend these laws and regulations in stages. For instance, failure by an election committee to properly investigate the qualifications of candidates would be addressed by the creation of an evaluation work group that is intimately familiar with laws and regulations concerning appointments.
LT: What is the ministry evaluation of China’s strategy to drain academics and resources [from Taiwan]?
Pan: Six of China’s package [incentives for Taiwanese announced on Feb. 28] are related to scientific research and education. China does want to obtain Taiwan’s researchers and capture their research on the cheap. We cannot speak of this as “incentives,” since all of the benefits actually go to China. The ministry’s policy is to encourage international academic exchanges, but since China’s intent is to take our researchers and deploy “united front” tactics against us, we have to respond by assuming a cautious and watchful posture.
Our understanding is that most Taiwanese academics who have gone to China did so only after having retired from a [local] school or otherwise having left their position, which has happened in isolated cases. It is not as if all highly skilled Taiwanese researchers have vanished and we should not panic over it.
However, we do need to treat this situation seriously and take steps to improve the nation’s employment environment and developmental possibilities. This is the responsibility of the universities and the government.
For researchers, the government already has laws that regulate the employment of academics in China. For research projects, there is the Fundamental Science and Technology Act (科學技術基本法) and other regulations covering scientific and technological research. Government-funded research and development projects and intellectual property are protected by law as state-owned; this applies to their ownership and application as well.
This is not a matter specific to some individuals or the state of China. This is about protecting national security and the nation’s future development.
China is, at the moment, making many official proposals inviting our people to participate in their governmental research programs. Institutions or individuals participating in these programs are responsible for applying for approval from the government. Vetting these programs should involve joint ministerial work by the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education.
As per Article 33 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, a person from our country must obtain permission from a proper authority before joining or working for a political, military or administrative organization in China.
Faculty of public universities cannot be part of any academic exchange with China, except for those that officials on both sides have signed off on.
In addition, any individual who wishes to participate in a Chinese state research program must obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Education, which will vet the project with aid of whichever ministry or agency is appropriate for the research field.
Translated by staff writer Jonathan Chin
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