The China Post published this priceless story yesterday in which a foreign PHD student at a local university was supposedly recorded in class and then later chased out of the program:Alred, a U.S. citizen living in Taiwan, applied to the Ph.D. program of the Department of Political Science at National Chung Cheng University in October 2007.
He submitted all the required documents that included a 25-page research proposal and a statement clearly explaining that he did not speak or understand Chinese.
After the school's Office of International Student Affairs confirmed that international graduate studies did not require the students to speak or understand Chinese, he was officially admitted to the program after completing all the necessary steps in December 2007.
Yet he was rapidly disenchanted with his studies.
On February 20, he immediately was faced with a thorny issue as the professor of one the program's mandatory courses, Dr. Lee Pei-shan, only spoke to him in English during the opening minutes of the course, then switched to Chinese for the next hour.
After meeting with her and expressing his desire to learn and study in her class, he told The China Post that he was "coldly dismissed."
"When I again expressed in the following class that I could not understand Chinese above the most basic level, she clearly stated: 'That is not my problem,'" he recalled.
Following that event, Alred explained that he asked Dr. Liao Kun-jung, professor and chairperson of the Department of Political Science, to act as a go-between to try to work out an agenda with Lee, but to no avail.
Lee reportedly stated that she "refused to teach him."
During Alred's third class, Lee's husband, another professor in the physics department at the school, was unexpectedly present in the classroom with a recording device, while Lee directed several questions to him in Chinese and "sat broadly smiling in front of the class," he remembered.
"They had conspired to set me up so they could rationalize their misconduct to the university officials," he went on. "They hoped I would have reacted inappropriately in the class while I was being embarrassed because they were recording it."
Not only that, but suspiciously, the school's Wiki entry has been modified with the tale, the only bit of history in its HISTORY section...UPDATE: see comment on this below.
2008 foreign student scandal
In 2008, the university's political science department received media attention for its treatment of an American doctoral student, William Terry Alred. Alred had stated in his application that he could not speak or understand Chinese, and was accepted into the program. Conflict occurred when one of his professors (whose course was required) refused to teach him in English,...
Wonder how long that will stay up. As a current PHD student in Taiwan, I can't really comment on the particulars of the story. This has not been my experience at all, though, at NCKU, in the Business Department, with about 8 other foreign students from Indonesia, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
[Taiwan]
13 comments:
Hi Michael,
long-time reader first-time poster.
I am your younger schoolmate, as I am in the NCKU IMBA program.
I have also had difficulty with a professor, though not as much trouble as that poor guy had.
Although it took some time to get a response from the dept, as it was summer vacation, they responded quite fairly and well.
I met with the dean and office staff, and explained my issue.
The dean agreed that I had a valid point and arranged a meeting with the Faculty Committee members, and allowed me to present my case.
The professors who were present listened carefully and respectfully, asked intelligent questions and treated me fairly and impartially.
Many of my classmates had said that this was impossible. That a foreign student would just be ignored, at best. At worst, well, forced to leave as Mr. Alred did.
I am proud and pleased to report that they were wrong.
Mr. Alred's case is unfortunate, but I agree with you Michael, that this is not the case in every university in Taiwan, and certainly not at NCKU.
And I am proud to be continuing my education in the NCKU IMBA program.
James D. McNamara
IMBA Program
NCKU
I'm in Industrial Engineering as a Ph.D. student.
My Chinese is pretty minimal. The issue, however, is whether I can do the math problems, write the computer code, and look halfway civilized when dealing with VIP visitors (like accreditation teams).
Also, the key issue for any student in my program is publishing papers. Everything else is secondary compared to the sacred SCI and EI listings.
My school is pretty good about using English for tests, so I can at least read the questions. Lectures are usually not English, but textbooks are, so I have to show up and feign interest while sneaking glances at the book.
My experience Chiao Tung was similar though not as severe. Luckily I had a wonderful advisor.
Prior to entering the graduate program it was explained to me that it was now a requirement that all courses be taught in English. None were.
One prof in particular was especially cold advising me to stay out of her classroom.
I found the arrogance by some amusing since other than having a graduate or phd degree they weren't particularly accomplished.
Both Dr. Lee and the chair, Dr. Liao, received their Ph.D. degrees from American instititutions. Namely, Univ. of Pennsylvania and Univ. of Kentucky, respectively.
They must have decent English language skills in order to finish doctoral degrees at these institutions (maybe not - I am aware of some of the "shadier" practices of many Taiwanese students in America); curious as to why they refused to use them in this instance.
I am very grateful to a poster on this thread raising the issue of SSCI journals. Michael, can't you write up about how it is nothing short of fraud to expect PhD student to publish in SSCI journals when the library resources are appalling inadequate, the vast majority of universites have no research culture, and professors dont publish in said journals?
I think too the former poster makes a great point. Foreign PhD students give qudos to an institution when accreditation teams visit. In the classroom as the story of Alred shows, sadly, they can be seen as an inconvenience.
Would welcome your comments, Michael.
Anyone who wants to be critical of professors who do not feel compelled to teach in a foreign language should keep in mind a few points:
1) Local students can bring great pressure on teachers who use English.
2) Professors receive nothing for their extra effort.
3) The MOE's standardized wage scale means professors in Taiwan are making less than 40K USD. There is no difference between the top universities and the lowest, between basic Chinese classes and advanced engineering or marketing classes. From the prof.'s perspective, what is the point?
4) Having foreign students does nothing for a school's MOE reviews or ratings. They are totally disconnected from the MOE governed system. Foreign students do generate revenue flows, but not for professors in the classroom.
I'm very tempted to not use English in my own classes. There is not a single benefit.
Clyde,
People are paying to do their classes in English so as to undertake and ultimately complete their PhD program. However this in practice is turning out not to be true. Therefore is it fair to say that if the university's had any morals they would address this issue? Is the matter of teacher's lack of motivation to teach in English an excuse or reason? Or does it mean that foreign students are machines to make money off and to treat as second class citizens?
Sounded like a case of a linguistic payback to me. Perhaps the prof had a tough time of it with English while he was studying abroad, and saw an opportunity to even the score on an innocent bystander.
Bad P.R. for the school, though.
it seems clyde that monetary gain is top priority in your view. it saddens me to think that the once noble profession of teaching has reduced to fraudulent publications and calculative means to measure one's effort. i might be a bit romantic on such topic but having lectured myself in engineering, there is not greater pleasure than that of sharing wisdom.
Hi Michael,
I learned this news early before this article had been published and knew there was miscommunication between the dept and the faculty. This is a pity that CCU failed to draft a sound program before lauched it.
Just one reminder, in most case, NCCU was referred to 政治大學, while CCU to 中正大學. You might like to check the official website of CCU at www.ccu.edu.tw.
cheers,
James
I really hope this doesn't affect his opinion of Taiwan. Taiwan has enough problems as is, the last thing we need is more bad publicity in the fields of education.
Hello Michael,
I'm the one who added that bit to CCU's English wiki, though somebody else added the names of the professors. I have no connection to any of these people or to the university, by the way--I just read the story in the China Post. I made sure to give the school's explanations, which IMHO basically conceded the snafu.
While I was editing, I made some other changes too--like explaining the school's name up-front, and getting rid of phrases like "It is widely considered to be one of the best higher education institution in the southern area of Taiwan." (The Mrs. reports that among the national universities, CCU ranks somewhere in the middle, though if anyone wants to put in actual rankings that would be great.)
The wiki article is still the way it was. For comparison's sake, check out the one on Hsuan Chuang University (English version). I don't think universities pay a lot of attention to Wikipedia.
Oh, and I added a link to your article too--hope that doesn't lead to an infinite regress!
The suggestion came up on Forumosa that the school should instruct foreign students to bring their Chinese girlfriends to class. And inform them that those without Chinese girlfriends will be assigned one during registration.
Post a Comment