 |
|
|
White Paper - Presidential Blue Ribbon Panel 2009
National Cheng Kung University (國立成功大學) Tainan, Taiwan
November 20, 2009 |
|
|
|
| |
|
On November 17-20, 2009, the first Presidential Blue Ribbon Panel meeting for National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) was held both in Ministry of Education, Taipei, and at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
The Panel members who attended the meetings are listed below in alphabetical order:
- Mark Becker, President of Georgia State University
- David Chang, Chancellor of Polytechnic Institute of New York University
- Haydn Chen, President of Tunghai University
- Steve Kang, Chancellor of University of California, Merced
- Chuan Sheng Liu, Former President of National Central University
- Tom Shih, Head and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University
- Michael Stevenson, President and Vice Chancellor of Simon Fraser University
- Randy Woodson, Provost of Purdue University
The meeting was chaired by Academician Michael Ming-Chiao Lai, President of NCKU, and co-chaired by Professor Da Hsuan Feng, Senior Executive Vice President of NCKU. All senior administrators as well as college deans of NCKU, Minister of Education, Deputy Minister of Education, senior government officials from the Department of Higher Education and Ministry of Education were also present.
During those three days, there were extensive and in-depth discussions. This was followed-up by numerous email correspondences. This whitepaper is a result of the cumulative information derived from the meeting and the subsequent correspondence amongst the Presidential Blue Ribbon Panel.
The following report is summary derived from written comments by all eight panel members on the perceived strengths and weaknesses of and recommendations for NCKU.
 
Strengths
- Outstanding leadership, alumni, faculty and students.. The panel members recognize the outstanding and visionary leadership, strong alumni legacy, successful faculty and students of NCKU.
- Leading comprehensive university in Taiwan with strong international links. NCKU is recognized to be a leading comprehensive university in Taiwan with strong strategic international links to assist the university to move to the next level. The panel members also perceived NCKU’s open environment that is built on innovations and good infrastructure. The distinguished history and culture of NCKU should serve as assets of and resources for its development.
- Great location with good relations with industries and resources. NCKU is located in Tainan, the traditional capital town and culture hub of Taiwan. Currently it is near the Southern Taiwan Science Park, providing convenient exchange to booming industries and resources.
Weaknesses
- Rigid government control and protection by the Ministry of Education. In Taiwan, higher education is regulated as governmental affairs, limiting its innovative potential and hence competitiveness locally and internationally. In particular, the control on tuition, enrollment and faculty salary needs to be reviewed and reformed in a way to make higher education in Taiwan to swiftly respond to changing international and regional academic landscapes to keep its capacity to fulfill its educational, academic, economical, industrial, and humanitarian missions.
- Insufficient organization, management, staff, support and inadequate infrastructure and inertia within the university communities. There lacks a clear policy for procedural matters that is most suitable for NCKU. While governance structures tend to be too much leaned toward bottom up, they consequently handicap the senior administrators. Deans do not have sufficient resources, or some of them didn’t want it, to help build strong middle manager strength. Last but not least, within the university communities there appears to be a general lack of recognition that change is necessary for NCKU or higher education in Taiwan to be a regional academic power in the future.
Recommendation: strengthen collaboration with Ministry of Education towards an accountable and sustainable autonomy
Apart from keeping true to lasting values such as integrity, academic freedom, and having the best interest of all stakeholders at heart to move decisively and transparently towards autonomy, the Panel concluded that NCKU should/must work closely with Ministry of Education along the process of transforming towards a sustainable autonomy format which will further enhance NCKU’s competitiveness and commitment to its missions. Specifically, the collaboration should start from the following priorities:
- NCKU's governance restructuring such as piloting a role model governing Board that can help establish a trustworthy autonomy of NCKU and help the President. There should be a clear timetable and organization charter that can address issues such as accountability, resilience to interest groups and dedication to serve NCKU towards its educational missions.
- Establish a flexible plan which should “grandfather” the compensation and retirement benefits of current faculty and staff and maintain competitiveness to recruit future ones.
- Formulating a national funding scheme for the universities that will enhance competitiveness of Taiwanese universities while reforming to autonomy status. One possibility is to allocate such funding on the basis of institutional strategic plans and well established clusters of research strength for use in appointing national research stars and graduate student fellows.
- Prioritize and create financial assistance for international student recruitment to the top universities (with a deregulated international student fee in the autonomous control of the universities).
 
|
|
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
