Shih Hsin University (SHU) yesterday announced it would close its Chinese Literature Department in two years’ time, finding it necessary to make the adjustment due to Taiwan’s declining birthrate.
The school’s Chinese Literature Department plans to convene a forum next month to provide information and dialogue with those affected, as well as to explain the best ways to protect students’ right to education, and working rights for professors, lecturers and teaching assistants, the private university’s officials said.
University officials said they had applied this year to the Ministry of Education to stop the enrollment of first-year students in the department beginning in the 2025 academic year.
Photo: Taipei Times
Department of Higher Education section head Chen Kuang-ying (陳冠穎) said the ministry has not received any formal letter on how the university would make curriculum changes and adjustments, although by law, school officials must hold a dialogue with staff and students on how to protect their rights, and explain the procedures to stop enrollment, change department names or merge into another department.
“Each year from February to March, the ministry takes on institutional applications for curriculum changes, meaning that Shih Hsin can apply by March next year, and our ministry will conduct an assessment and check if the school has undertaken proper dialogues, as evaluated on sets of standard criteria,” Chen said.
Regarding the move, the Taiwanese Society for the Study of Chinese Literature and Culture in a release yesterday said that cultivating talent is an important investment, and upholding traditional ideals should be SHU’s responsibility to society.
“We urge the ministry to reassess its education policies to deal with the crisis in the arts and humanities programs at our school in recent years,” the release said.
“Taiwan has experienced a declining birthrate, fewer students enrolling in school and changing industry trends. Therefore, all universities must carefully plan their cultivation of academic talent, and any curriculum adjustments must include full communication and respect the wishes of staff and students. Once a department is terminated, the rights of staff and students must be protected,” it said.
“Language and words are the content of a people’s collective memory and history, and imbued with a depth and scope for the main structures of a nation, and its people do not merely exist within narrow confines. Language and words are also about contemplation, creativity and expressing human ideas, which are the fundamental basis and union of ideas for all academic fields,” it said.
“The borders of a language are the borders confining ways of thinking, so schools should not make rash decisions,” it said.
“As an institution of higher learning, it is a place to pursue higher ideals and values. It is best to invest in talent by educating literate, cultured people for society... Right now, the university curriculum for Chinese language and literature is facing severe competition from other professional fields, but we must face up to this in earnest and keep up with society’s progress,” the release added.
“In academic circles, there is a need for descriptive prose and literature regarding Taiwan’s own stories and its people’s history, from the older classical to the modern era. Language is the deep research into linguistics and our words to reconstruct the past and imagine the future, and as the firm foundation to understanding the world. It is also for exploring the contemporary zeitgeist, and a tool for self-reflection and the motivation for progress, and this is the essence of the curriculum for Chinese language and culture,” it said.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS