A high-ranking education official yesterday expressed confidence that distinguished high school students would stay and study in Taiwan despite China’s plan to allow Taiwanese to apply for places at Chinese universities using their scores on the Taiwanese college entrance exams.
Department of Higher Education Director Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛) said a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that up to 80 percent of respondents said they would not send their children to study in China even if Taiwan recognized Chinese diplomas.
Only 8 percent of those polled said they would consider the option, while 12 percent said they would choose to do so even if the government decided not to recognize Chinese diplomas, Ho said.
“Those who want to go [to study in China] will go anyway, but most will stay,” Ho said.
Ho made the remarks in response to an announcement by Chinese Vice Minister of Education Yuan Gui-ren (袁貴仁) during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum in Changsha, Hunan Province, at the weekend.
Yuan said on Saturday that China was planning to allow Taiwanese students who score well on Taiwan’s college entrance examinations to apply to study at universities in China. Yuan said Taiwanese students would be admitted if they passed interviews.
Currently, Taiwanese students who wish to attend Chinese universities have to either take special entrance examinations for students from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau or sit China’s college entrance examination. Taiwanese students receive an extra 20-point bonus on their scores.
However, Taiwan does not recognize Chinese diplomas, even though the KMT administration has announced that recognition of the diplomas would be one of the objectives of its cross-strait educational exchanges.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has objected to the policy.
KMT Legislator Cheng Chin-ling (鄭金玲) of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee said China’s plan could serve as a driving force for Taiwanese universities to improve the quality of their teaching.
On the other hand, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), also a member of the committee, voiced her concern that China could take this opportunity to force the Taiwanese government to recognize Chinese diplomas.
She said that the survival of Taiwan’s universities might be at stake if more Taiwanese students studied in China.
Meanwhile, Peking University president Zhou Qifeng (周其鳳), who is in Taiwan for an eight-day visit to promote academic and student exchanges among tertiary education institutions, said he hoped his visit would help persuade Taiwan to recognize Chinese diplomas.
“It is widely believed that Taiwanese recognition of Chinese diplomas and academic accreditations will further boost cross-strait student exchanges and mutual understanding,” Zhou said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Peking University admits about 200 Taiwanese students each year, Zhou said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS