President Ma Ying-jeou announced earlier this week that a flexible payment program for academic professionals will be launched next month, enabling local universities to keep or recruit first-rate scholars with more competitive offers. But some worry the program may give rise to new controversies, as it would be hard to set up objective criteria for evaluating professors.

Researchers and professors in Hong Kong, Singapore, and China enjoy wage levels two to four times higher than their counterparts in Taiwan, and the island is therefore suffering from a personnel outflow.

Earlier this week, President Ma Ying-jeou announced a new flexible wage policy for professors that will be implemented in August.

In response to concerns that disputes could arise without established qualification standards, the Ministry of Education said that schools can decide for themselves which staff members qualify for a raise and how much the raise should be.

According to Education Minister Wu Ching-ji, many universities benefiting from the "five-year, 50 billion NT plan" are already using "distinguished" or "chair" professor

The National Science Council also said that decreased tax revenues were the main reason that the flexible wage budget was slashed from 10% to 6.5%, and that the ratio will increase if the technology budget increases in the future.

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