According to the figure released by Office of Academic Affairs, up till last Thursday, October 11, the enrolment rate of the undergraduates at T.K.U. reaches 96.27%; the rate of graduate students, however, dwindles to a dismal 75.83%. This situation has induced Pres. Chang Horng-jinh to declare, “If this trend continues, we may consider to call a stop to recruit new students in certain institutes and give permission to install some new ones instead.”

In assessing their losses and gains, every director of the concerned institute or department has something to say. Prof. Liu Hui-chuan, Chair, Department of Information and Communication, attributed the success of her department to a number of reasons: l. It is the most desired of all related departments that have kept the interests of students at bay, and 2. The curriculum design has integrated the related information and communication courses and it is different from most of the programs that the traditional Mass Communication offers. Innovativeness, in other words, is the key to the overwhelming success among students.

Department of Architecture is another winner that shares the l00% students’ reporting- to- duty rate

Department of Mathematics, however, suffered a l0% loss. Prof. Kau Chin-mei believed the loss was caused by a misunderstanding harbored by high-school graduates who simply cannot place Mathematics in their future career.

In the graduate studies, 6 institutes have failed to realize their goals. Their names are: Department of Mechanical Engineering with emphasis upon Section A: .Thermodynamics and Section B: Design; Department of Electrical Engineering on Control System; Chemical Engineering’s “on-the-job” training program; Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Section C and the special section for “on-the-job” training program for Graduate Institute of Southeast Asia Studies. The reasons for failure, on the whole, are: not enough applicants and fewer than normal students set aside on the waiting list.

As for the worst-hit Graduate Institute of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, only 26% of the graduate students enrolled. Prof. Kang Shih-fang, Chair, said, “Because we were too picky at the beginning. We have also had some problems in setting up the matriculation questions on the test. We should look for improvement in these areas.”

Prof. Wang Chu-ching, Chair, Department of Business Administration, regretted that timing has had something to do with the woes of students’ enrolment figure. It has been 50% less than expected. “Our school should hold the matriculation examination at the same time as other private universities. This way, the enrolment figure might pick up.”