Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) on Thursday promised to begin a trial run next year of a university program for people in their “third chapter of life” to encourage middle-aged and older people to return to school.
Planning for the trial is expected to be completed by the end of this year and would be made public next year, Cheng said.
Cheng was responding to Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Wu Chun-cheng (吳春城) during a legislative session.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The median age in Taiwan was 19.3 years in the 1970s, but it is estimated that it would reach 52.4 by the 2040s, Wu said.
However, most universities only accept 18-year-old students, which means that the strategic planning for university admissions has not changed since the 1970s, he said.
The “strong generation” — referring to those aged 45, 55 or 60 and above, according to different definitions — controls as much as two-thirds of Taiwan’s wealth, but most of them regret not going to college, Wu added.
The education ministry should make use of the rich resources of universities, through different methods, to encourage the strong generation to return to school, the lawmaker said.
“Instead of nursing homes, let retired people enter universities,” he added.
Wu collected opinions from all sectors of society through public hearings and compiled information about special classes for bachelor degree programs and multi-specialty degree programs, he said.
Many schools have expressed willingness to promote them, he added
The Ministry of Education told Wu that, in the short term, it would entrust a professional team to develop core curriculum modules.
In the medium term, it would identify some schools to pilot a “third chapter of life university” program, while in the longer term, it plans to allow those schools to offer degrees, the ministry said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS