Former minister of education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) yesterday urged incoming minister of education, Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), who is to assume the role today, to re-establish constructive communication and cooperation between the Ministry of Education and National Taiwan University (NTU).
The deadlock caused by the controversy surrounding the election of the university’s president should not be prolonged, Huang said, adding that, otherwise, it would be disadvantageous to the development of the nation’s higher education and to NTU.
Huang was referring to the case concerning Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), who was elected NTU president on Jan. 5 and would have taken office on Feb. 1, but his appointment was not approved by the Ministry of Education amid allegations of plagiarism, a conflict of interest and a flawed election process.
The controversy led to the resignation of former ministers of education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) in April and Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆) in May.
The NTU last month filed an administrative appeal.
The appointment of a new education minister offers an opportunity for reconciliation, Huang said.
As the nation’s leading college, NTU has first-rate talent, and international levels of competitiveness and research potential, Huang said.
As the government is focussed on having a globally competitive higher-education system, the new education minister should communicate and work with NTU, he added.
Lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said he believes that now that the controversy has entered the administrative appeal process, if the NTU files for an administrative remedy, it would take at least two to three years to resolve.
Having Yeh, formerly a law professor at NTU, assume the role of education minister poses a quick solution, as he, unlike Pan and Wu — who were not from NTU — should be familiar with the university’s administrative system, Huang Di-ying said.
If Yeh could persuade the univesity to withdraw its appeal and restart its presidential election process, it would be the most effective and quickest solution, Huang Di-ying said.
However, if Yeh is unable to convince the NTU, he could consider using his right as a supervisory agency to impose administrative penalties on government employees at NTU, he said.
Yeh could even consider sending evidence to the Control Yuan to trigger impeachments, disciplinary sanctions or other actions to defend the Ministry of Education’s exercise of power according to the law, he said.
Ho De-fen (賀德芬), a professor emeritus at NTU’s law school, said the government should once again ask the NTU to restart its election process.
If the university still resists, the government should remove the interim president — Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維) — from his position and report the NTU’s administrative team to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission, Ho said.
NTU yesterday said it insists on filing for an administrative appeal, but would not be so bold as to speculate regarding the new education minister’s attitude.
It hopes that Yeh would help resolve the situation in accordance with the law, the university said.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Huang
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS