TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Security Bureau (NSB) Director General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) will no longer teach at National Taiwan University (NTU) during the next academic year, reports said Tuesday (Aug. 16).

Chen faced a wave of criticism because he served as the advisor on a master’s thesis by Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), who abandoned his bid as the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate for mayor of Taoyuan City last week after NTU said it found evidence of plagiarism and rescinded his degree. Taiwan’s top school said it would investigate Chen’s academic responsibility in the case.

The top intelligence official’s name on Tuesday reportedly no longer appeared on the website of NTU’s Graduate Institute of National Development, giving rise to media speculation that he had been laid off.

NTU confirmed Chen would no longer teach at the institute from the 2022 academic year, but since he only served as an adjunct professor, his removal from the list of teachers could not be described as a dismissal, CNA reported.