Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday confirmed that he had received an official notice from National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Social Science of its decision to revoke his master’s degree and said that he respected the decision.
During the campaign for the nine-in-one elections, New Party Taoyuan mayoral candidate You Chih-pin (游智彬) alleged that Cheng had plagiarized his master’s degree thesis for NTU’s Graduate Institute for National Development.
Cheng said that the institute did not require that students use plagiarism checker programs, adding that he had successfully defended his paper before a panel of three professors on how the democratization of the Chinese public would not lead to a governmental change to democracy.
Photo: CNA
At the time of the study, conducting empirical studies on the topic was impossible, Cheng said, adding that he had instead performed an analysis of existing literature.
Cheng said he stood by his statements to the university’s Research Ethics Committee that his thesis was original and that the lack of citation was an oversight, not plagiarism.
Cheng said that had the institute mandated students use plagiarism-checker programs, he would have found out about the missed citation and would have provided the proper footnotes.
He said that he did not have time to verify all his sources, adding that he did not have some of the documents on hand at the moment to note down his citations.
Cheng said he was sorry for the oversight, but he had no intention of plagiarizing.
The lack of citations does not take away from the originality of his research, he said.
NTU yesterday confirmed that it had concluded its investigation into the matter, but declined to reveal its results.
The university said that its investigation followed all relevant regulations, adding that they already notified Cheng of the results.
The university will not let standards slide on academic ethics, it said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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