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
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