Ombudsman raps Taiwanese university on sexual harassment response

Taiwan’s government ombudsman has criticised the country’s leading university for falling to protect students from sexual harassment. 

In a censure report, the ombudsman – called the Control Yuan – highlights multiple incidents of sexual harassment at National Taiwan University (NTU), including by an associate professor in the College of Public Health and a dormitory counsellor.

The committee found that once the incidents had been reported, the university did not do enough to protect the students involved from further harm.

In the case of the dormitory counsellor, which dates back to 2022, the employee was prosecuted after harassing a student also working in the dormitories. However, the university then failed to take action to prevent further contact with the victim.

The report says NTU also needs to do more to provide suitable training, codes of conduct and counselling for university employees to help prevent such incidents from occurring. 

The university said that its gender equality committee had determined there was no sexual harassment and that the case has now entered the judicial process. 

Another student was sexually harassed by an associate professor who was supervising their thesis. Although they were subsequently supported to change supervisor, the university did not help address issues related to the intellectual property rights of the students’ work, meaning they were forced to rewrite their entire thesis under new supervision. The committee said this breached the student’s “right to education”.

The university changed its regulations last November to allow students who face harassment to change their supervisors more easily, following wider calls in Taiwan to strengthen anti-harassment laws after high-profile allegations against politicians and celebrities.

However, in its report, the committee says that issues “such as how to maintain a mentoring relationship between teachers and students and how to provide students with timely relief channels (such as academic assistance and legal assistance) are not dealt with in a comprehensive manner”.

It also criticises the university’s decision to suspend the involved academic, who was accused of harassing multiple students, for one year instead of the three recommended by Taiwanese guidance.  

“It was also unfair for the Ministry of Education to still approve the school’s teaching council’s decision to suspend the teacher’s employment for only one year,” they say. 

In the statement, the Control Yuan representatives discussed issues of equitable relationships within universities, noting that some students were scared to speak out “because of the unequal power relationship”. 

The ombudsman called for further investigation and the university will now be expected to respond to the report.

An NTU spokesperson said the university "humbly accepts the corrective measures proposed by the Control Yuan" and said it has "continuously strengthened gender equality education for faculty, staff, and students to prevent incidents". 

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com