News

2008.0108

NTNU President Expecting a Reformed NTNU, Inside Out

By Jimmy Chuang Contributing Reporter National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) President Gou Yih-shun (郭義雄) said that those teachers who would regard students as their priorities and those students who would interact with others as much as possible will be his favorites, during his conversation with a group of campus reporters this morning. "Students should interact with fellow students as often as possible so they would always have opportunities to discover fresh ideas from others all the time,” Gou said. Under the traditional evaluation mechanism, a university instructor shall be evaluated by the total amount of research papers or books she or he had published within certain period.  Gou said that at NTNU, a teacher shall be evaluated by how well she or he would interact with students and how much time she or he would spend on students. "Teachers’ priority and responsibility would be to develop remarkable students,”he said. The president said that as a national university, the government actually spent approximately NT$4.2 billion (US$131 million) a year to maintain NTNU.  In the meantime, each NTNU student enjoys approximately NT$220,000 a year from this amount, as free education resources which originally came from the taxes. "The money came from the taxes.  As a result, it is my obligation to develop quality, outstanding and remarkable students, who will be capable to pass on the spirit and serve our next generation,” he said. Gou, upon request, met with Office of University Relations and campus reporters at the conference room of the Office of General Affairs for a 150-minute interview.  He mentioned about his plan to reform NTNU but he also experienced a great deal of frustrations because not everyone understood or agreed with his policies. "The Office of Academic Affairs, for example, our faculties there have done so much reforms in response to the future flow -- that many family only has fewer and fewer children.  But, nobody knows that they have done so much,” Gou said. The president also mentioned that the Nobel Prize winner and renowned physicist Lee Tsung-dao (李政道) has accepted NTNU’s invitation and offer to teach on the campus but this story was only shared by a limited number of NTNU staff on the campus. "So many great academic institutes in the world would invite Lee but he only accepted our offer.  News like this should be delivered,” Gou said. The president emphasized his policy that science should not go alone without humanism. "Lee also agreed with me on the theory and that was why he would come contribute himself on the campus,” Gou said. In the meantime, the president encouraged the Office of University Relations to do its best to help promote and introduce NTNU to the public, while NTNU will continue its communication with many other sister universities, foreign and domestic, by recruiting more exchange students to NTNU’s foreign allies and inviting more foreign students to explore and experience a different culture at NTNU. "We would prepare a great deal of money to help our students study abroad.  That is our policy,” Gou said.  "Meanwhile, ‘mission impossible’ would be the phrase I would use to encourage our staff at the Office of University Relations.  Their job is tough.  But, to carry out our plans, we certainly cannot do without them.”