Officials at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology yesterday said that they would promote a merger of the three.
If successful, it would be the largest higher-education merger in Taiwan’s history.
The new institute would have more than 1,200 lecturers and 32,000 students, the universities said.
Photo: Lo Hsin-chen, Taipei Times
While they have yet set a timetable for the merger, they said that they hope to have plans approved at university council meetings by the end of this year.
The plan has been reported to the Ministry of Education, they said.
The goal is to have the new institute recognized as a top Asian university in three to five years after the merger, they said.
NTUST president Liao Ching-jong (廖慶榮) said that he and NPUST president Tai Chang-hsien (戴昌賢) began discussing a merger between three about a month ago.
They agreed that having a third technological university from central Taiwan would make the new university more globally competitive, Liao said.
As the goal is to increase scale, none of the three universities would be downsized, Tai said.
Given that the process would involve many legal issues, they have asked lawmakers to help promote amendments to regulations covering public universities, Tai said.
If the merger succeeds, it would become a new model for mergers, he said.
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology president Yang Neng-shu (楊能舒) said that he would be happy to see the plan succeed, adding that he would establish a panel to handle tasks related to the plan.
While the three have not decided on a name for the new institute, they said they have agreed that “National Taiwan University of Science and Technology” would likely be kept.
The three might be renamed NTUST’s Taipei campus, Yunlin campus and Pingtung campus, they said, adding that the final name must be agreed to by all three universities.
Yang Yu-hui (楊玉惠), director of the ministry’s Technological and Vocational Education Department, said that she would be happy to see the merger succeed, as long as it would help make the universities more competitive and that there would be no exchange of benefits.
Expenses, faculty and student numbers are expected to remain the same for the three following the merger, Yang Yu-hui said.
Additional reporting by Wu Po-hsuan
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS