Shih Hsin University (SHU) yesterday announced it would close its Chinese Literature Department in two years’ time, finding it necessary to make the adjustment due to Taiwan’s declining birthrate.
The school’s Chinese Literature Department plans to convene a forum next month to provide information and dialogue with those affected, as well as to explain the best ways to protect students’ right to education, and working rights for professors, lecturers and teaching assistants, the private university’s officials said.
University officials said they had applied this year to the Ministry of Education to stop the enrollment of first-year students in the department beginning in the 2025 academic year.
Photo: Taipei Times
Department of Higher Education section head Chen Kuang-ying (陳冠穎) said the ministry has not received any formal letter on how the university would make curriculum changes and adjustments, although by law, school officials must hold a dialogue with staff and students on how to protect their rights, and explain the procedures to stop enrollment, change department names or merge into another department.
“Each year from February to March, the ministry takes on institutional applications for curriculum changes, meaning that Shih Hsin can apply by March next year, and our ministry will conduct an assessment and check if the school has undertaken proper dialogues, as evaluated on sets of standard criteria,” Chen said.
Regarding the move, the Taiwanese Society for the Study of Chinese Literature and Culture in a release yesterday said that cultivating talent is an important investment, and upholding traditional ideals should be SHU’s responsibility to society.
“We urge the ministry to reassess its education policies to deal with the crisis in the arts and humanities programs at our school in recent years,” the release said.
“Taiwan has experienced a declining birthrate, fewer students enrolling in school and changing industry trends. Therefore, all universities must carefully plan their cultivation of academic talent, and any curriculum adjustments must include full communication and respect the wishes of staff and students. Once a department is terminated, the rights of staff and students must be protected,” it said.
“Language and words are the content of a people’s collective memory and history, and imbued with a depth and scope for the main structures of a nation, and its people do not merely exist within narrow confines. Language and words are also about contemplation, creativity and expressing human ideas, which are the fundamental basis and union of ideas for all academic fields,” it said.
“The borders of a language are the borders confining ways of thinking, so schools should not make rash decisions,” it said.
“As an institution of higher learning, it is a place to pursue higher ideals and values. It is best to invest in talent by educating literate, cultured people for society... Right now, the university curriculum for Chinese language and literature is facing severe competition from other professional fields, but we must face up to this in earnest and keep up with society’s progress,” the release added.
“In academic circles, there is a need for descriptive prose and literature regarding Taiwan’s own stories and its people’s history, from the older classical to the modern era. Language is the deep research into linguistics and our words to reconstruct the past and imagine the future, and as the firm foundation to understanding the world. It is also for exploring the contemporary zeitgeist, and a tool for self-reflection and the motivation for progress, and this is the essence of the curriculum for Chinese language and culture,” it said.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
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,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS