Isn’t it easy to write off all institutions of higher education of a continent of 4 billion people in one brush when you’re from the West?
Well, I spent time in Asian academia, and many of my friends are in Asian academia. I have heard Asian academics make the same complaints. A good friend was doing his PHD at Hong Kong University and spent the whole time complaining that it was a publication factory. I also know a Taiwanese academic who was sacked from HKU for not publishing enough and she made the same complaints. HKU is arguably the best university in East Asia.
I think I am allowed to have an opinion, as you are allowed to have an opinion on Europe which you seem to quite enjoy giving. This is completely independent of where I come from. Taiwanese make judgement on Western Academia and I never feel the needdo spit my dummy out
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I’ve never said anything like all Europeans are this and that, which you guys love to say (all Taiwanese are this and that etc.)
Well if you read the context, I was talking about Jiaotong University and the general trend of East Asian academia to game the system. Its a popular opinion. Its not even my own opinion and I dont really get the point of your moral crusade.
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I wouldn’t call that gaming the system. Gaming the system would entail publishing fake stuff.
The context of the article is about Jiaoda and Taida collaborating with US tech companies. The fact that they overwork Indian postdocs isn’t too relevant.
You said they were top research institutions because of the amount they publish. They aren’t . They are some of the best research institutions for engineering on the island and it’s no surprise that the new Microsoft and Google units are recruiting from there for engineers.
Huh? If you’re publishing in top journals, you’re doing quality research by definition, unless you’re producing fake stuff. Postdocs are part of the university. How you get there is a totally different issue.
Btw, my parents went to 政大 (which is more a humanities school). And my dad went back there on his sabbatical twice. He said back in his college days, things were opposite. Taiwan didn’t publish jack squat, because you couldn’t fire people due to guanxi.
There are many journals inside IEEE and the Taiwanese universities are totally geared towards publishing papers. They are submitting papers all the time. Nobody is talking about fake stuff, but quality is subjective. You need to do something new to get published and those kind of papers can be written in a month. Universities ignore longer-term projects in order to focus on publishing.
Taiwanese parents only care about rankings, which is the reason the universities play these games.
Taiwan is total “Publish or Perish” academia and I have been about it enough to say that despite my ethnicity.
That is absolutely true of any non-western university I can think of. That doesn’t mean they are not quality papers though, some of them are top notch but that means super game-changing research that may or may not lead to a paper are usually ignored in favor of “safer” research that all but guarantee multiple publications.
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That was a more concise way of saying what I wanted to. Thanks
30k NT = 4 x monthly rent for a studio apartment in Taiwan.
Where I’m from in the US (Portland area) low income people make about 2 x monthly rent for a studio, which is not enough to qualify.
So I would agree that this is not that bad. If this is bad then the US is worse.
It would be hard to live off min wage in either Taipei or Portland. Min wage comparison in both cities comes out the same against rent for studio of same size/condition.
Taipei Min Wage is 140ntd 22k/month Studio Apartment ok condition about 10,000 NTD. 22k @ 10k Rent= Half salary to rent
Portland is $11.25 or 342ntd $1,640 or 50k/month. Studio Aparment ok condition about 800 USD. 24,300 NTD. 50k @ 24,300k rent = Half salary to rent
For accurate comparisons we’d have to compare job/salary to job/salary.
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Your estimates are a bit off.
My studio in Taiwan is only 6,350 NT and that includes hot water, HD cable TV with 5 HBOs, Cinemax, and high speed internet, so you could even go cheaper. 24k NT per month is more than 3x rent.
$800 for studio in Portland is unrealistic. You might find $900, but after utilities it’s closer to $1000. That’s only 2x rent at minimum. It’s impossible to qualify for an apartment on that income, and unlike in Taiwan, they do conduct thorough background checks in the US.
In fact, I’ve been living in Taiwan for almost a year working a free lance job that pays on average about $7/hr and almost breaking even by working just 2-3 hours a day, plus visa runs ever 90 days.
6350? Thats roughing it. Are you in Taipei or down south? I look at 591 every week for the past 6 yrs. Yes you can find 5th floor places for 6350 but…theyre really bad in Taipei and some owners make up for it by upcharging their tenants on Kilowatt hours
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Kaohsiung, but I’ve seen crappy studios for 7000 in Taipei on 591. Rough living is better than working 40 hours a week in the US and not even being able to afford your own place.
I do have to pay electric, but with AC running it’s only about 1000 NT per month.
What were you doing in the US if you dont mind me asking vs Kaoshiung. If you were making min wage then its not livable in the US
Last job was data entry in a state tax office. It was more than min wage, but far cry from living wage, especially not on the West coast where I lived (Oregon)
Now I type captions for web videos. I’d rather do that a few hours a day than work 40 a week.
Yes Portland is expensive, I guess if you’re lucky enough to find a job in Kaoshiung then one can live easily down south
I work free lance, so as long as I have fast internet I can easily earn about $500/month working 2-3 hours per day. I’d like to make more. Not keen on getting back into the EFL game unless I run out of money and have no choice.
you are definitely very frugal if living on $500 (NT$15,000) a month.
Serious props to yah, no joke.
The south/east of Taiwan is helpful in this regard.
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