On the urgent call for doing more research studies from upper echelons, many deans of colleges in TKU have convened meetings and conferences to deal with this vital problem.

For instance, a common topic: “How to Induce Faculty to Read More and Produce More?” has become the common topic on the agenda of the following 3 colleges: Business, Management and Foreign Languages & Literatures. Department chairs have also presented their concrete plans for their faculties to execute, with the exception of College of Liberal Arts, but they may submit their plans in the next College Meeting.

On the other hand, Dr. Feng Chao-kang, V.P. for Academic Affairs, has lent his weight of presence to each of these meetings. He also used these occasions to reiterate the resoluteness of the higher authorities.

In the meeting last Friday (March 22), Dr. Lin Yao-fu, Dean, College of Foreign Languages & Literatures, insisted that each language department should hold at least one academic forum within this semester, and after a careful scrutiny, have the speeches transformed into academic papers, and printed them in Tamkang Studies of Foreign Languages & Literatures.

Prof. Chen Ting-kuo, Dean, College of Management, laid out the objectives for each faculty member: at least 1 paper for international index journal; at least 2 papers for a domestic journal ; at least 2 papers for national and international conferences or workshops; at least 2 essays on current news issues in either a domestic or a foreign newspaper or magazine; two lectures; at least one book.

As for promotion of academic research, the English Department has already started a program called “The Afternoon Tea” in which Freshman English and Oral Drilling professors will organize a Research Group to evaluate students’ performance, from which teaching materials will be gleamed, thus broadening the area of academic research.

Meanwhile, Department of Industrial Economics indicated that the Academic Research and Development Fund established many years ago is beginning to pay off today, because many faculty members’ administrative expenses for research projects were defrayed by it. Other departments, on the other hand, wish to set up Reading Clubs to help faculty apply more research projects.

The Japanese Department, however, was opposed to the stringent Sabbatical Leave regulations. An Associate Professor, for instance, they argued, needs more paid leaves to do research than a Full Professor after 7 years of solid service.

In elevating students’ research impetus, Pres. Chang Horng-jinh’s words in the 79th Administrative Meeting were quoted again by Prof. Chen Ting-kuo: “Don’t let students idle away by giving them no pressure. Give more quizzes to push them to read more books; or ask them to do more oral or written reports so they will learn how to do research.”