After a six-hour meeting, the National Taiwan University (NTU) election committee yesterday decided to ratify the election of NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔).
Kuan’s election has been controversial, because he has been accused of breaching research ethics and his position as an independent director of Taiwan Mobile (台灣大哥大) could be a conflict of interest.
The university said it forwarded information to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Science and Technology showing that Kuan has no record of ethics breaches.
Photo: CNA
While NTU had hoped that the MOE would expedite Kuan’s approval, the ministry asked it to convene the election committee and clarify the matters in question.
It is not the committee’s place to say whether the result would have been different if Kuan had made his position at Taiwan Mobile known, it said.
Regarding the plagiarism accusation, the committee said it would respect the NTU Research Ethics Office’s decision that Kuan’s paper was not an official academic thesis and therefore should not be subjected to plagiarism standards.
The committee said it had observed all voting procedures, adding that it would issue a formal notice to the MOE of Kuan’s approval.
Committee convener Chen Wei-chao (陳維昭) said the public was aware of the decision as of Jan. 5.
However, the university opted to abide by MOE, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan requests to convene the committee and clarify matters, Chen said, adding that all members attended the meeting.
“We hope Kuan can be sworn in today,” Chen said.
MOE Department of Personnel Director Chen Kun-yuan (陳焜元) said as of press time last night that the department had yet to receive the documents.
All official documents must be passed between the MOE’s Department of Legal Affairs and the K-12 Education Administration, so Kuan would not be able to be sworn in today, Chen Kun-yuan said, adding that the ministry is compelled to accept the results of the meeting.
The MOE is not concerned with the timing of when the procedures are completed, he added.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
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