Last August, they were promised a remuneration of NT$25,000 for a five-days-work and one-day-study program, they went on, noting that they only received NT$19,000 per month after all.

“On the paper, the enrolling conditions were very attractive,” complained two young female students from the CHIT program surnamed Zhuang and Zhen.

After successfully passing the examination entrance last July, the two girls said they were asked to reply immediately to the school offer following their first interview. “We contacted our parents over the phone, and finally accepted because we thought they could work and study at the same time, without having to worry about finding a part-time job near our school,” they said.

But everything has changed since then, they said.

“The CHIT only provided transportation from Taipei to Taoyuan,” they added. “We had to get from Taoyuan to Hsinchu on our own,” they said, indicating that all the students from the CHIT program work for the same company, located in Hsinchu, and take their classes in Taipei.

“We also hoped that we could keep on working for the same company as ‘front desk officers,’ after graduating,” they said. “But we have been sweeping floors ever since we started,” they added, visibly disappointed. “We haven’t learned anything.”

According to a representative of the Youth Labor Union who attended the protest with the students, the MOE should have asked the CHIT to clarify the nature of its contract with the commercial company, before allocating NT$1 million in subsidies to the university.

The students then asked to meet a representative from the MOE, who also contacted with Chang Sheng-lin, vice president of the CHIT. The latter agreed to meet with the students in Taipei.

“Why do we have to pay the same tuition fees as regular students if we only attend classes once a week,” immediately asked a student to Chang. He added that tuition fees for regular students amount to NT$40,000 for a semester of classes five days a week.

Chang replied, “some questions could be solved, some could not,” which didn’t appease the students.

Chang then said that he would think about the suggestions made by the students but needed until Wednesday before he could answer their questions. “You cannot ask me to promise everything in two or three minutes,” he said.

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