According to the Mid-Term 1/2 Prevention Warning System, this semester TKU sent 3,433 letters to parents last week (3,994 such letters last semester), telling them that their sons or daughters had failed more than half of their courses in the mid-term exam. The result is 561 letters fewer than those of the last semester, and this clearly shows that the Prevention Warning System has achieved results. Some students hope that TKU will add the class average mark and student’s ranking in the class in the letter. The Dean of Academic Affairs, Huan-chao Keh replied that the letters sent last week included such items, letting parents know thoroughly about the students’ academic performance.

According to the statistics by the Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Engineering ranked first, with more students who failed more than half of their courses, followed by College of Management and College of Business. In the past the Office of Academic Affairs sent supervisors the paper copies of lists of failed students. This semester, supervisors can not only get the lists from the TKU Supervisor Internet Platform but also know much more about information about students’ academic performance, so they can decide if it is necessary to transfer the students to the Center for Learning and Teaching or to the Counseling Section. Electrical Engineering 3C supervisor Jen-shium Chiang highly agreed with this. He pointed out that the Internet system lessened some burden of supervision as supervisors could see more information about students’ performance and understand more about their studies and their potential circumstances. The situation was no long like before when supervisors only knew the crises of students’ failures but not really understood how serious it would be.

Business Administration senior Student Tsai, whose parents received such a letter, said that his parents called him and expected him to work hard and study diligently. He believed that the added class average mark and the student’s class ranking helped parents understand the student’s situation better. But if TKU clearly explained that this was only a warning for the mid-term performance, parents would not worry that their children had already finally failed more than half of their courses. ( ~Dean X. Wang )