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.
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