The Ministry of Education yesterday reminded universities that members of examination committees for master’s degrees should be appointed based on academic professionalism and peer consensus.
The statement was issued after the Taiwan Statebuilding Party questioned the qualifications of examination committee members who had evaluated the master’s thesis of Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Ya-ching (李雅靜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Kaohsiung chapter on Saturday wrote on Facebook that late KMT Kaohsiung City Council speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源) and former KMT legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) were members of the committee that examined Lee’s thesis at National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Public Affairs Management.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The ministry yesterday cited Article 8 of the Degree Conferral Act (學位授予法), which states that members of master’s degree examination committees must “have done specialized study in the research field of the student” and meet one of four qualifications.
These qualifications are being a current or former professor, associate professor or assistant professor; being an academician at Academia Sinica, or a current or former Academia Sinica research fellow, associate research fellow or assistant research fellow; having a doctoral degree and significant academic accomplishments; or having expertise in a rare or highly specialized research field or professional practice, and significant accomplishments academically or professionally.
The criteria for determining the third and fourth qualifications should be set at a department, graduate institute or college affairs meeting or at a degree program affairs meeting, the ministry said.
Committee members who meet the third or fourth qualification should be appointed carefully, with academic professionalism and peer consensus, to avoid harming the quality of higher education and university autonomy, it said.
Chang Po-yang (張博洋), deputy director of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s news department, yesterday said that Ho’s and Hsu’s educational backgrounds fell short of the act’s appointment criteria, and the university and Lee should provide an explanation.
Kaohsiung’s residents cannot accept local factions intervening in university autonomy and academic ethics, he said, calling on the ministry to investigate.
The university yesterday released its enforcement rules for master’s degree examinations, which include the same qualifications for examination committee members as the Degree Conferral Act.
Hsu and Ho should be considered to have fulfilled the fourth qualification, the university said, adding that it would offer details at a later time.
The incident concerning Lee is the latest controversy over the graduate thesis of an elected official after allegations of plagiarism against Kaohsiung City Councilor and KMT Kaohsiung mayoral by-election candidate Jane Lee (李眉蓁) first surfaced last week.
Amid mounting accusations that she had plagiarized her thesis, Jane Lee on Thursday said she would give up her master’s degree.
Additional reporting by Fang Chih-hsien and Huang Hsu-lei
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS