The Ministry of Education (MOE) is mulling measures to combat recent allegations that two universities have allowed students to write thesis papers on topics irrelevant to the focus of their departments.
The ministry is calling on universities to establish methods to ensure the quality of thesis papers, and was considering a draft act for investigating theses irrelevant to the academic focus of a department in vocational universities, which would immediately call for a parallel review of theses by both the university and the ministry, it said.
Department of Technological and Vocational Education Director Yang Yu-hui (楊玉惠) said that the ministry had closed the Chung Chou University of Science and Technology Department of Intelligent Automation Engineering with Article 55 of the Private School Act (私立學校法), after it confirmed allegations that its master program allowed students to write papers inapplicable to their studies.
The ministry said it had received complaints that a professor at Chienkuo Technology University’s (CTU) Department of Electronic Engineering had set thesis topics that were unrelated to the department’s studies from 2015 through 2018.
The complaints alleged that some engineering theses covered topics of stress-relief through collecting talismans or crystals, or the use of geyser therapy, while others concerned the spatial organization of night markets or the management of hot pot stores, it said.
It demanded that CTU convene a panel of experts to review the topics and conduct an internal review of the department, which the ministry has temporarily barred from enrolling new students
The ministry said that it could also close the master’s degree program under the department, depending on the outcome of the review.
The ministry is expected to conclude an investigation into the schools by the end of this month, as well as an education quality inspection at the universities by March, it said.
It would expand inspections to engineering colleges in other vocational schools, which it expects to finish by May, it said.
Over the long term, the ministry is to establish a regulatory mechanism on educational quality in vocational and normal universities that would reinforce Article 24 of the Enforcement Rules of the University Act (大學法).
The mechanism would require universities being inspected to initiate a parallel review by the school and the inspection committee of all thesis topics chosen as of the first semester of this scholastic school year, with problematic theses being forwarded to the ministry for further review.
The mechanism should be considered part of the thesis topic review process starting in the second semester of scholastic 2019, it said.
Schools with problems confirmed by the ministry that have not been remedied would face action under Article 55 of the Private School Act, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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