Jealous roommate illegally forfeits NTU student's admission

Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) National Taiwan University (NTU) will allow a graduate student to enroll during this academic year after his admission to Taiwan's top university was illegally invalidated by an envious roommate in May.

According to a statement issued by NTU on Wednesday, the student surnamed Chen (陳) completed online registration for a master's program in March but found in June that his status had been changed to "forfeited."

Investigators at the Nantou District Prosecutors Office determined that the change was made by Chen's roommate at National Chi Nan University, a student surnamed Lo (駱), who accessed Chen's information after photographing his ID card.

Prosecutors said Lo used Chen's personal data to log into the NTU system from his residence in Nantou County's Caotun Township and selected the "apply for forfeiture" option.

Lo admitted to Taoyuan City Police Department investigators that he accessed Chen's account without authorization and altered the system's electromagnetic records.

According to the Nantou District Prosecutors Office, Lo's actions violated the Personal Data Protection Act and the Criminal Code, but he received deferred prosecution for one year after reaching a settlement with Chen.

Prosecutors said Lo is also required to complete a legal education course within six months.

NTU said the case was referred to the university's admissions committee, which approved allowing Chen to begin his studies during the 2025-2026 academic year.

NTU also said that after reviewing the case, it found no similar incidents in past admissions records.

The university said it has strengthened authentication requirements across its reporting systems and now requires users to obtain a one time password (OTP) sent to a personal email before a log in can be achieved.