The Ministry of Education on Friday said it would suspend continuing education courses at some higher-education institutions on its watchlist from the new semester, which begins in August.
Eight institutions failed to achieve an enrollment rate of at least 60 percent for the previous academic year — from August 2017 to June last year — with Fortune Institute of Technology, Huafan University, and Nan Jeon University of Science and Technology having fewer than 3,000 students, ministry statistics showed.
The eight institutions are Huafan in New Taipei City, Hsuan Chuang University in Hsinchu County, Mingdao University and Chung Chou University of Science and Technology in Changhua County, Kao Yuan University and Fortune in Kaohsiung, Nan Jeon in Tainan and Chungyu University of Film and Arts in Keelung.
Amendments to the Guidelines on Continued Education Offered by Higher Education Institutions (專科以上學校辦理繼續教育辦法) say that such institutions are to be barred from offering continuing education courses unless their enrollment improves.
Other reasons that would lead to restrictions from offering the courses include severe debt, serious financial difficulty, three months of unpaid employees’ salaries, unwarranted salary reductions, employment of unapproved staff, failing a ministry evaluation or being placed on the watchlist.
Department of Technological and Vocational Education Director Yang Yu-hui (楊玉惠) said that institutes that are found to provide poor education would not be allowed to offer continuing education courses and the ministry filed an injunction banning them from doing so.
The watchlist would be published after the Legislative Yuan passes a private school transformation and closure bill, Yang said.
Meanwhile, National Sun Yat-sen University president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) has proposed a merger with Kaohsiung Medical University, a private institution.
If successful, it would be the nation’s first merger between a public university and a private one.
Commenting on legal technicalities facing such a merger — which would be classified as a “private foundation” — Cheng called on the ministry to relax regulations, saying that integrating their resources would leverage the research capacity of higher education, creating in a win-win situation for the institutions and the nation.
However, Kaohsiung Medical said the proposed merger needs careful deliberation, while existing collaborative programs between the two have greatly leveraged education quality for both.
The ministry has expressed support for public-private mergers, but proposals by Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) that the private institution turn over half the seats on its board of directors to its public counterpart and that the entity be a foundation are considered difficult to realize.
A possible solution would be to have separate management for education and business affairs in such a merger.
Association of Private Universities and Colleges of Technology, Taiwan director-general Tang Yan-po (唐彥伯) said the government is unlikely to certify faculty members at private institutions as public teachers, as that would increase government spending.
If a public-private merger happens, faculty from private institutions would probably still be covered by their existing pensions, which would pose the problem of “one school, two systems,” Tang said.
Shih Chien University president Michael Chen (陳振貴) said he is optimistic about public-private mergers, as they would offer private institutions facing closure a way out.
Additional reporting by Weng Yu-huang and Huang Hsu-lei
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS