Tamkang Times invited Huang Wen-shu, President of Dong Hwa University, and Chen Po-chang, Dean of College of Education, TKU, to hold a dialogue at Ching-Sheng International Conference Hall last Monday (Nov 22). The two scholars, from both theoretical and practical perspectives, broached the topic “Revolution of Education or Market? On the Problems of University and Market.”
The event was hosted by Vice President for Administrative Affairs Kao Po-yuan. The audience actively participated in the discussion; President of TKU Flora C.I. Chang, ex-President Lin Yun-shan, and many other professors brought up their questions; ex-Minister of Education Huang Jong - tsun, currently teaching at TKU, also proposed some ideas for the Fourth Wave.
On the basis of his experiences in national universities President Huang Wen-shu, himself TKU’s alumni, indicated that government should avoid interfering with universities’ affairs and allow them to develop their own characteristics. He also pointed out that Taiwan’s advanced education has progressed from the previous elitism, popularization, to the current universalization; the status quo of more than 100 colleges leads to the serious shortage of educational budgets. If this situation continues, those private universities with efficient managements will surpass national universities in the future.
Dean Chen said that while he held the position of the President of Hualien Teachers College he closely interacted with President Huang. Considering market mechanism, he worked with President Huang on the merge of the two schools but did not succeed at last. He emphasized that “market” is a great force impacting on advanced education; universities must face the challenge to maintain the core values like academic autonomy and independence against external difficulties.
Chen and Huang both agreed that university evaluation should be taken seriously. Ex-Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun responded that university evaluation can function as a balance in the market mechanism to eliminate the universities lacking in academic achievements and administrative effects. Nevertheless, Huang only agreed on the evaluation on research but had reservation about the evaluation on teaching, which he thought might cause negative effects. As to TKU’s Fourth Wave, he proposed that TKU should continue to develop its particular traits and the researches like “Golden Point No. 1,” which may inspire more specialists wishing to dedicate to the design and development of the computer for the blind, should be put in the first priority in the development plan.
President Flora C. I. Chang posted her questions to Dean Chen and President Huang: how can universities enhance their competitiveness? How do national universities use their foundations for academic affairs? Dean Chen pointed out that colleges are open to people ranging from 18-year-old teenagers to the retired. He questioned, “Does our recruitment only concern those top-forty high schools, whose graduates constitute the most members of TKU?” Taking “Lanyang Art Program,” founded days ago, as an example, he emphasized that universities should be more open to the elderly and play a more active role in social service. President Huang explained the problems of budgets: “Putting the foundation for academic affairs into proper management mechanism, national universities’ uses of budget can be more efficient.”
