The Ministry of Education (MOE) on Thursday said that it would investigate allegations by a teachers’ union that students from Eswatini, the nation’s only diplomatic ally in Africa, had been forced into exploitative “internships” after enrolling in a work-study program at Mingdao University in Changhua County.
The ministry said that in 2018, the university had recruited about 40 students for a four-year work-study scholarship program, promising them the opportunity to develop off-campus work skills and experience while completing a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
In a recruitment brochure, the university offered applicants a range of financial inducements, while touting the program as “ultra-affordable.”
In November 2018, Swazi media reported that the students were being forced to work 40 hours per week peeling chicken skins in a refrigerated factory in exchange for their lessons and accommodation.
Following the incident, the ministry ordered the university to cancel the students’ employment contracts and assist them in returning to a full class schedule.
It also reduced the university’s international student recruitment quota for the 2019-2020 academic year, the ministry said.
The students remained enrolled and were given tuition discounts, grants for living expenses and assistance in finding legitimate internship opportunities, it said.
However, earlier this year, the students reported that Mingdao University had reduced their financial benefits and imposed new minimum work requirements for their internships or other “service learning” activities, the ministry said.
University president Kuo Chu-hsun (郭秋勳) held a news conference on Thursday last week with five of the students, who said that the work conditions did not amount to labor abuse.
However, in a letter to the ministry on Tuesday, the Union of Private School Educators said that the university took the international students’ wages in the form of monthly “donations” from the factories where they worked, and used only a portion of that money to offset their tuition and expenses.
The union pointed to the school’s publicly available donation records from 2012 to 2018, which it urged the ministry to investigate.
Union president Yu Jung-hui (尤榮輝) said that the university had forced the students into “fake internships” without any form of oversight, and had damaged Taiwan’s reputation.
Rather than try to “cover up” the university’s behavior, the ministry should ban it from recruiting international students for the coming school year, Yu said.
University secretary-general and director of human resources Chan Kuo-hua (詹國華) on Wednesday said that there is no connection between international students’ tuition and corporate donations.
The discounts offered to the Swazi students — including semester tuition of NT$10,000, compared with the standard rate of about NT$50,000 — add up to far more than companies donate to the school, he said.
Regarding the labor abuse allegations, Chan said that under the original program, students studied three days on campus and worked three days at internships every week.
The university suspended that arrangement on orders from the ministry, he added.
As many international students still need employment to afford their expenses, the university allowed them to voluntarily choose internships from a screened list of employers, with a limit of 20 work hours per week, Chan said.
The internships are arranged between students and the employers, without involvement from the university or employment brokers, and are in compliance with Taiwanese labor law, he said.
The ministry said that it is illegal for universities to use brokers to recruit international students or arrange work for them.
Schools that breach the law would face severe penalties, it said.
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
NINTH MONTH: There were 11,792 births in Taiwan last month and 15,563 deaths, or a mortality rate of 8.11 per 1,000 people, household registration data showed Taiwan’s population was 23,404,138 as of last month, down 2,470 from August, the ninth consecutive month this year that the nation has reported a drop, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. The population last month was 162 fewer than the same month last year, a decline of 0.44 per day, the ministry said, citing household registration data. Taiwan reported 11,792 births last month, or 3.7 births per day, up 149 from August, it said, adding that the monthly birthrate was 6.15 per 1,000 people. The jurisdictions with the highest birthrates were Yunlin County at 14.62 per 1,000 people, Penghu County (8.61
RSS