Declining enrollment in Taiwan Artificial Intelligence College Alliance (TAICA) courses among university students might be due to member institutions offering their own artificial intelligence (AI) classes outside the alliance framework, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said on Thursday.
He made the remarks at a Legislative Yuan meeting after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers asked him to explain TAICA’s weaker performance in its second semester since its founding.
Citing data from National Taiwan Normal University, KMT Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞) said several TAICA courses had zero enrollment.
Photo: Fang Ping-chao,Taipei Times
Participating institutions have reported waning student interest overall, with pass rates for TAICA courses averaging between 50 and 60 percent, he said.
TAICA’s courses might be overly challenging, and the reasons for the drop in enrollment warrant further review, Ko added.
Cheng said TAICA’s online courses were designed to enable well-resourced universities, such as National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University, to share teaching staff and resources with other alliance members.
Taiwanese higher education institutions have been opening more AI-related classes on their own, and overall enrollment in AI courses nationwide has increased, indicating reduced reliance on the alliance’s support, he said.
Separately, KMT lawmakers raised concerns over the absence of Deputy Minister of Education Benson Yeh (葉丙成), which has left the ministry with only one of its three legally mandated deputy ministers.
Yeh has been on leave since May, after allegedly leaking the identity of a National Taiwan University student who filed a sexual harassment complaint in a Facebook post.
Yeh’s absence has disrupted ministry operations, but officials handling the case believe more time is needed to complete the investigation in accordance with their legal authority, Cheng said.
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