Dr Lin Ching-jiang

Welcome by the Public Orator

Vice-Chancellor,

Lin Ching-jiang was born in 1940 in Taiwan where he received his initial education. He studied for his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the National Taiwan Normal University before coming to Britain to undertake research in the Department of Education at this University, gaining his Doctorate in Philosophy in 1968.

He then returned to Taiwan where he has built up an enviable reputation as one of the leading sociologists of education in the country and, over the years, he had also played a significant part in the management of education policy nationally.

His first post, on returning home in 1968, was as associate professor at his old University; then in 1972 he was appointed Director of the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education. Three years later he was made Vice-Minister for Education in the central government and, shortly afterwards, Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs. In 1978 he returned to academic life as a full professor at the National Taiwan Normal University, where he was also Dean of Graduation in the Institute of Education and Dean of Student Affairs. In 1981 he was appointed President of the National Kaohsiung Teachers College which subsequently became, in its own right, a University, but after only two years in that post he was once again called into public life as Minister of Education for the Taiwan Provincial Government.

Perhaps his most interesting and significant role then followed when he was invited to be Director of the Preparatory Committee for the new National Chung Cheng University in 1987. Two years later, when the University was opened, he was appointed as its first President and in the years which followed he was responsible for building up a highly successful new educational enterprise. With the new University well-established, he relinquished his position as its president last year to take up his present role of Member, with ministerial rank, of the Examination Yuan of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

As part of his career in higher education Dr. Lin has developed, over the years, his research into the significance of education for the people of Taiwan, drawing at times on his research work here in Britain and the comparative lessons learnt from it. Amongst his books are: The Sociology of Education, British Education, Primary Schools and the Family, New Perspectives on the Sociology of Education, and The Future Orientation of Education.

Dr Lin has been president of the China Education Society and the Chinese Comparative Education Society in Taiwan and at the moment he is President of the Chinese Adult Education Society in Taiwan.

Today we are pleased to honour a man who spent a short, but significant, part of his early life here in our Department of Education. Here he gained, through his research, that broader perspective on the significance of education for society which has made hum, over the last thirty years, one of the leading educationalists in Taiwan. He has been able to develop a vision and an international context for his thinking; his innovations have given him the opportunity to use to maximum effect his natural talents as a teacher and administrator and today is contribution to higher education is still very significant. Taiwan is well served in these times of great international introspection about the provision of higher education by such a wise public servant. It is a particular pleasure to welcome back a man who has retained his affection for this University and who, in 1994, was appointed the first Chairperson of the University of Liverpool Taiwan Alumni Association which he played a leading role in establishing.

 Vice-Chancellor, in the name of the Senate and of the Council, I present to you Lin Ching-jiang for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) in this University.