Providing incentives
The Merit Bonus Program basically retains the existing seniority-based pay while incorporating a merit pay concept to provide for pay adjustments to help schools recruit and retain talented individuals.
The Merit Bonus Program is funded by subsidies from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Science Council (NSC). The MOE funds come from a 10% retention of the budget for its Aim for Top University Project (informally called the Five-Year NT$50 Billion Project) and its Project of Pedagogic Excellence. Schools not included in either of these two programs can apply with the MOE for support under a separate NT$100 million subsidy program.
The amount of NSC funding available to any individual university or research institution under the Merit Bonus Program is equal to 6.5% of the total research project funding awarded to that entity by the NSC during that year. In all, the NSC disburses about NT$1 billion each year in this manner. The more research funding a school is awarded by the NSC, the more money is available for the retention of top research talent.
NSC deputy minister Chang Ching-fong points out that in the year-plus since the launch of the Merit Bonus Program, bonuses have been provided to 3,700 professors and research personnel at 120 different schools, with each person receiving between NT$10,000 and NT$200,000 per month. This has helped significantly to retain top talent.
Wong Chi-huey also notes that the NT$60,000 to NT$70,000 starting base salary of a newly hired assistant researcher falls too far short of the NT$100,000 to NT$200,000 paid monthly to someone in a similar position overseas, but the Merit Bonus Program has enabled the earmarking of 30% of research funding for improved compensation. As a result, those who turn in outstanding performance can get up to an extra NT$50,000 per month, which has proved an extremely effective means of recruiting and retaining top talent.
Winners and losers
But while the intent of this reform is good, any man-made set of rules is naturally prone to the possibility of unfairness.
One economics professor grouses off the record that discussing the distribution of merit bonuses within a university department feels like “dividing the spoils” from a heist. Senior professors with authority over the use of resources allot the lion’s share to themselves while junior professors, who actually do the bulk of the research work but have less political clout, can only “pick at the leftovers.”
President Wu Se-hwa of National Chengchi University (NCCU) is also critical. He notes that most of the funding for merit bonuses currently comes from the MOE’s Aim for Top University Project, and from the NSC. In other words, schools that receive less funding from these two organizations will naturally get less funding for merit bonuses. National Taiwan University (NTU), for example, gets NT$3 billion under the Aim for Top University Project, of which NT$300 million is available for merit bonuses, and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) gets NT$1.2 billion (NT$120 million for merit bonuses). But NCCU only gets NT$200 million, and thus has only NT$20 million available for merit bonuses.
Also, it is inappropriate to take the number of projects awarded by the NSC as the standard, because the NSC has always directed more funding toward science and technology, and less toward the liberal arts.
Wu Se-hwa is indignant: “Are the teachers at NCCU any less accomplished than those at NTU, NTHU, or NCTU? Why should our merit bonuses be any less? Furthermore, teachers in the liberal arts aren’t tied down to a particular laboratory or research team, so they’re actually much more easily headhunted.”
On that score, Cyrus Chu acknowledges that the merit bonus scheme does indeed stress polytech at the expense of the liberal arts, so in addition to the NSC, it might be a good idea to give due consideration to research funding from the MOE, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agriculture, and other agencies when making merit bonus assessments, so that universities with a special strength in the liberal arts or social sciences can award higher merit bonuses.
So how is a university to ensure fair distribution of such bonuses? Chu emphasizes that the government cannot get too involved in this question because universities have their autonomy, but suggests that perhaps the competent authorities could apply a bit of moral suasion by urging schools to shoot for certain percentages to be awarded to up-and-coming talent.
Limited resources must be put to use where they are most needed. The Merit Bonus Program provides academia with greater firepower to retain talent, which is to be commended. In the global search for talent, the race is on, and Taiwan cannot allow itself to be left behind at the starting blocks.