Three cash-strapped private universities have been ordered to stop enrolling new students for the upcoming semester and shut down next year, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.
The ministry made the announcement after a meeting of its private university closure review committee, which had placed Mingdao University in Changhua County, Tatung Institute of Technology in Chiayi County and Transworld University in Yunlin County on a watchlist in August last year, due to mounting debts and unpaid wages.
The universities failed to resolve their financial issues by the deadline on Wednesday last week.
Ko Chin-wei (柯今尉), deputy director of the Department of Technological and Vocational Education, said the three universities were ordered to halt enrollment of new students from the fall semester and shut down on July 31 next year.
The ministry would oversee the closures using about NT$1.25 billion (US$40.68 million) from a designated fund and would help 1,120 students at the universities transfer to other institutions, Ko said.
Tatung Institute of Technology has 419 students, 102 of whom would not graduate this year or next year and would need to transfer to other schools. It has 52 employees and debts of NT$50 million. Transworld University has 1,873 students, 556 of whom would need to transfer, 184 employees and NT$180 million in debt. Mingdao University has 1,376 students, 462 of whom would need to transfer, 190 employees and NT$328 million in debt, the ministry said.
The committee would meet next month to appoint new boards of directors for the universities, Ko said.
From the appointment of the new boards until universities’ closure, employee’s salaries would be paid from the ministry’s designated fund, Ko added.
Back salary owed to employees would be paid next year, after the universities close and their assets are liquidated, Ko said.
University employees recently protested asking to receive compensation sooner.
Any assets remaining after the schools’ debts are settled would be transferred to the designated fund, the central or local governments, or designated public schools, Ko said.
Kao Yuan University in Kaohsiung was removed from the watchlist after receiving a NT$280 million donation from Taiwan Steel Group on Monday last week, the ministry said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
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