Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Curfews at dormitories, bans on demonstrations, skyrocketing tuition and gender inequalities in school regulations are among the violations of student rights’ that are still common at schools, a group of students said yesterday after investigating 65 universities across the country.

“Apparently, many schools are still under martial law, since more than 60 percent of the universities in the country still have school rules restricting students’ rights to hold assemblies and demonstrations,” Cheng Yi-chan (鄭亦展), a student at Chang Gung University’s Computer Science and Information Engineering Department and a member of the Student Rights Team, told a forum yesterday.

Despite the government’s posturing about its success in cross-strait and foreign policies, Washington is concerned about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) linear approach, a national security expert said yesterday.

Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), a researcher at the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank and a former aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said Chen’s “zigzag” strategy made him unpredictable in ­setting policy during his two terms in office.