Obtaining Your Academic Degree in Taiwan?

最近我终于开始了有史以来最宅的一段时间。尽管所作的事情不少,包括新电脑的选择,英国文化的了解和一个国际期刊的审稿。但是真的能够写到博客里的东西实在是少之又少。在我看来,博客尽管是一个个人页面,却不是一个个人生活的汇报表。但是前两天刚公布的相关法案却给了我写一篇新博客的动力。这个相关法案就是最近被国内媒体低调处理的“教育部針對開放招收陸生及採認大陸學歷相關規劃說明”。

随着我国的改革开放,大量的顶级人才已经通过留学通道流向了国外。在国外大学和科研机构的优良条件面前,一切所谓的“爱国主义”教育和“为四化而建设”的教条似乎都显得苍白无力。无论我们是否愿意承认,北大清华等一流的国内高校本科教育基本都成了国外顶级学校和科研机构的培训机构。尽管中国大陆的学生足迹遍布了全世界各个角落,我们却始终没有踏上过台湾的土地。

  1. “留学”台湾:一种意识形态下的尴尬

    之所以加上引号,是因为将赴台湾求学称作“留学”实在是不太恰当。因为这涉及到了意识形态和所谓的国家主权问题。现代汉语词典给留学的解释是:留居外国学习或研究。偏正式。按照这个解释,直接使用“留学台湾”肯定会引起某些敏感人士的不满。我的理解,或许称作“游学台湾”是个不错的替代法。

    其实这种意识形态问题是台湾和大陆学历不互认的根源。其实援引国际惯例,一般高校招收学生时,在学历认证上存在着三种情形:

    • 本国学历:一般这个是最没有争议的。比如我国高校肯定会承认中华人民共和国境内几乎所有的权利。
    • 联盟国学历:这种情况一般在欧洲很常见。欧盟国家通常给欧盟内学生以本国待遇,学历认可自然也如此。这种相互认可度是非常高的。
    • 其他海外学历:这种类型是我们海外留学遇到最多的。其实多年以来香港对大陆学历的认可一直是采用的海外学历认可方式(最近有了直接互认协议)。

    显然,对台湾而言,这几种方式均不可行。为什么?原因很简单,这些方式都假定双方有着没有争议的独立主权,而这对台湾而言,暂时还是个问题。所以台湾的顶级大学,比如台湾大学,尽管每年都会招收为数不少的海外学生,但是去从来不会有大陆学历的持有者。

    所以,采用国际惯例来处理大陆和台湾之间的学历问题只能是南柯一梦而已。最直接有效的方法就只有一个——协议互认。这样上述的所有问题都可以规避。

  2. 开放陆生来台:一种不真诚的经济策略

    其实要求开放大陆学生到台湾求学几年前就开始了。如果没记错,最早还是由台湾提出的。由于80年代以后台湾的教育改革和教育产业化改革问题(是不是跟我们的情况有点似曾相识?),在台湾一个小小的岛上却矗立着170多所大学。以至于近年来台湾高校招生人数和录取人数倒挂,出现了10分上大学之类的喜感事件。

    但是台湾真的是真诚欢迎大陆学生去台湾么?我认为是否定的。以几个限制性条款为例

    • 不编列奖学金:在其他学校提供高额奖学金,而台湾却不提供奖学金,还需要支付高额学费之时,你会选择哪一个?
    • 不允许打工和就业:这个问题不需多言。其实很多赴台湾的学生并不会留下。毕竟台湾所谓的民主和社会安定性并不好。但是这种条款就具有鲜明歧视了。
    • 只承认41所高校的学历:用意很明确,他们希望招收中国大陆的顶级学生。问题是,这些学生会选择台湾么?

    在我看来,在上述限制条件下,台湾把招收大陆学生作为了一种赚钱的买卖,而不是在真心实意办教育了。其实我很想问问台湾的当局者,教育到底是什么?教育的意义何在?

  3. 支持与反对:台湾人的YY

    网上搜索下,我们就可以很容易得到台湾当局民众各界对这个事件的看法。其实在我看来,与香港澳门等相比,台湾人显然不具有国际化意识。更多的,其实他们是生活在自己的YY中。殊不知,YY太多可是会走火入魔的,哈哈。如下是我所做的一个简单归纳。

    支持方观点认为:

    • 大陆学生更用功,可以产生鲶鱼效应。
    • 大陆学生来台,可以促进台湾的消费,提升台湾的GDP(如意算盘真不错)
    • 优秀学生可以促进台湾大学的科研能力。(此话不假,问题是,牛人会去么?)

    而反对方则观点更一致,也更实际:

    • 大陆学生会瓜分台湾学生的资源。他们认为教育资源均是来自于纳税人。大陆学生无资格享受。
    • 大陆学生会对台湾学生的就业造成冲击,无论是近期的还是远期的。

    从上述观点我们可以看到,其实台湾当局,无论是支持方还是反对方都显示出了一种局限性。而这种局限性在我看来,其实更多的是一种对自身的不自信。试想,美国和欧洲的教育也都是基于纳税人的贡献,但是却不怕全世界的求学者带来的竞争。所以,资源分配并不是因素,不自信才是核心。

  4. 哪些人会去台湾:个人观点兼结论

    其实在我看来,台湾的这种看着非常“小家子气”的行为肯定会大大阻碍大陆学生的选择。我觉得,未来去台湾的学生或许有如下几部分:

    • 公派交流学生:这个早已有之,但是非常小的一部分;
    • 富二代:如新西兰和澳洲的一些烂校一样,台湾或许会成为他们又一个腐败的地方。毕竟,台湾有着林立的野鸡大学

    而对大多数的学生而言,目前的条款几乎阻止了他们的脚步。毕竟更优的选择实在是有很多很多。

Blog Crashed: Unexpected Accident

My blog got crashed for the whole day yesterday when I tried to update the wordpress into the new version of 2.8.6, which was released that day. The detailed reason that can explain why this happen is still unknown yet. Though my blog is now working again, I suppose it necessary to write it down with pieces of words.

The problem that I come across is that when i am updating the new files from the local disk to the server, and the old files are overwritten, the connection was rejected by the server with the message saying ‘I can’t accept more than 2 connections”.Then the result seems to be more serious than expected, perhaps it is the difference on the versions of the system, that the system got crashed, you can only see the file list with the title of ‘index /’ without the original blog sites. I don’t know if it is the problem on the server, or that of my campus network, whose instability cause overloading attempts to login that lead to the rejection from the server. Anyway, the system is okay now and I have uploaded the files again.

In fact, we should not, and we have no excuse to complain much about this. Comparing to the other free hosting providers, 000webhost has offered much larger disk space, limitation on traffic, and good stability on servers. Though we are bearing the limitation on the amount of files that can be stored on FTP server for 6000, which is adequate for the personal blogs like mine, as well as the limitation on connections for only two, which is reasonable. However, you will always being warned of exceeding connections, but you can hardly understand why it happen. What you can do is to wait for three minutes, which is called inactivity, according to the guidelines officially. Well, thank goodness that there is no http header restriction, which is quite a terrible problem and it took my friend Bill days to get that done.

PS: The weather these days is getting really chilly, is it the cold that get the server frozen? hah, just a trick.

Personal Website in China: How Far Can It Go?

China, quite an unique country that owes dual standards on the information regulations. That is, the restriction on the public discussion on some political affairs and issues tend to be mitigated when there are some large international conference holding, like the passing-by Olympics. But for other days, all these restrictions remain. The access to various websites, including blogspot.com, wordpress.com, and facebook are totally abandoned. However, the restriction can be far more than this if you are holding a website for yourself, and unfortunately, you are using a domain hosted by Chinese companies and they are settled on a server in China (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are excluded). The government can offer you strict supervising especially when you are writing political articles.

Bill, a good friend of mine, who is also a fan on programming and internet, stopped his website recently due to the delete of his account by his ISP, 000space. Unlike the previous accidents that he suffer, his confidence and courage on working for his cheerful site eliminates. A notice about this has been put under his domain. I am quite depressed to see this happen, with the reason that, the blogs that we build-up, as the only free space for our minds and thoughts, has gone totally. I really cannot tell why he can suffer this, illegal contents? That cannot be a good answer, since he is a man that never overlook the protection on copyrights. The only explanation can be available is the attitude from the ISPs overseas to the customers in China.

As is discussed above that when constructing a website in China, more broadly, constructed by Chinese citizens, the web site needs to apply for a license from the government as well. For blogs, there can be some additional measures besides the basic one for all the websites in China. The absence of such a license for the website in China can be serious:

  • The space host for your website can stop the service of your site unless you successfully applied the license for it. It is a sufficient way to enforce the webmasters to apply such license. Still remember the crash in 2005 when plenty of website were closed in quite the same period?
  • If your domain is hosted by an agent in China, they can stop your service as well due to the similar reasons. What’s more, your domain can even be forbidden and your whois record be deleted when the regulator regard it as necessary. Several examples like this are available through the internet.

Based on these reasons, most webmasters take the following steps to avoid the supervises from the government since it can seldom bring managers benefit but only trouble.

  • Take the international domains, but not the Chinese ones with ‘.cn’ at the end. With suitable coupons, the annual fee for a .com domain can be as cheap as 3 to 4 dollars, or even cheaper. And you will never have to worry about the stopping of the service unless you are willing to.
  • Host the websites overseas. For most webmasters who are not willing to apply for a national license, this is quite a substantive way. Some wealthy managers can purchase paid spaces for their sites, but for the others like me, we can only afford the free space. Then the problem on the stability of the website comes. Some websites can be deleted only depending on the mood of the ISP and you can hardly get any compensation from them. There is quite a large opportunity that you must hold, especially for the users of free space.

It is really a hard job for the webmasters in China to maintain their own sites. It is a kind of job that can hardly bring in any commercial benefit especially at the very beginning. The only factor that promoted the development of such sites in China is merely on the persona interest. I really don’t know how far the website for the Chinese web managers can go? More practically, how long can my blog maintain? It is a difficult question to answer.

As a final, wish all the web managers good fortune and enjoy the pleasure during the challenges to the difficulties.

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