A group of National Chengchi University (NCCU) students yesterday called on students across the nation to protest against school regulations requiring foreign-language proficiency exams.
The Supreme Administrative Court last month ruled that requiring students to take proficiency exams before they may attend remedial courses exceeds the parameters of university autonomy.
However, while NCCU in January abolished the foreign-language proficiency requirement, more than 100 universities in Taiwan still enforce such a requirement, said plaintiff Lai Yi-ling (賴怡伶), a graduate of the university.
Photo: Lin Hsiao-yun, Taipei Times
Student Rights Association leader Hsu Jen-yu (許人友) told a news conference that the association has launched an “abolish zero-credit courses” movement.
Universities should not offer fake courses, nor should they mandate arbitrary graduation standards, NCCU student council leader Chen Po-han (陳柏翰) said, adding that universities should return to offering regular courses to better enhance students’ English-language abilities.
“It is illogical to impose a rule that students may not attend remedial courses unless they have failed an exam,” Lai said.
In 2016, Lai sued NCCU for refusing to issue her diploma because she had not provided a language proficiency test score.
The court last month ruled in favor of NCCU, but said that university regulations demanding that students take foreign-language proficiency exams before they can attend remedial courses exceeds the parameters of university autonomy.
“Universities are given autonomy so they would be able to offer better education,” said lawyer Chen Yi-tsung (陳易聰), who is representing Lai pro bono.
Current regulations “do not fit the goal of education,” Chen Yi-tsung added.
While the ruling seemed to be in the university’s favor, it has nonetheless pointed out the logical fallacy behind language proficiency tests, so it actually favors students, he said.
Hopefully, the majority of universities would observe the court ruling and return to the essential tenets of education, Lai said.
NCCU Department of Sociology director Huang Hou-ming (黃厚銘) said that the tests, originally intended to promote globalization, have become vapid and funnel students toward either British or American English.
While the case was an individual incident, the ruling says that university autonomy must remain rational, NCCU Department of Law associate professor Chen Chih-hui (陳志暉) said.
Determining student capabilities is a university’s task, and ensuring that students meet the standard is the true function and goal of universities, and should not be contracted to outside companies, Chen Chih-hui said.
NCCU Department of Radio and Television professor Kuo Li-hsin (郭力昕) said that he harbors no ill will toward the English language — having studied in the US and the UK for his master’s and doctoral degrees — but examinations do not allow students to become more fluent.
Exams instead make English a superior language to which people should aspire, a common reaction in post-colonial nations, Kuo said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS