Former Shih Hsin University president Lai Ting-ming said in a recent interview with Huang Yi-chin, a reporter for the Chinese-language ‘Liberty Times’ (sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’), that the recent ‘letters of agreement’ scandal involving local universities showed the lack of integrity and honor in Taiwanese higher education
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 27, 2017
Liberty Times (LT): During your term, you signed agreements of academic exchange
Former Shih Hsin University president Lai Ting-ming gestures during an interview with the Liberty Times in Taipei on March 8. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
with Chinese schools. Have you encountered incidences where Chinese institutions or students demanded letters of agreement or other pledges to control the curriculum?
Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘): I signed academic exchange agreements with Chinese institutions. While I understand certain schools, student associations or parent associations might have reservations about Taiwan’s democratic society or sensitive political subjects, I have never encountered any institution that demanded agreements of that kind. On the other hand, the very best Chinese universities tended to have fewer reservations and made fewer demands.
It is likely the difference between degree-seeking students and research students played a role.
Degree-seeking students are a minority in Taiwan — those who picked a university department to apply to on their own. As a result, they would know about — and indeed expect — certain things from their education in Taiwan. The Chinese government and Chinese universities exercise relatively little control with regard to those students. [FULL STORY]
