Encouraged by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the majority of Taiwan’s universities have adopted an English benchmark policy for graduation, indeed the most important English education policy in recent years. This paper critically reviews this policy from five perspectives. First, universities’ decision to follow MOE’s policy may not have been entirely out of the spirit of university autonomy, due to MOE’s regulations, evaluations, and funding allocation. Secondly, university students spend more than NT$1,000,000,000 under this policy every four years on English benchmark tests; such a valuable resource should have a better application. Thirdly, out of all the courses and skills, only English has an additional graduation benchmark, reflecting a rather biased attitude known as ‘English worship’. Fourthly, this policy is based on the assumption that testing leads to progress, which finds no support in education theory or empirical studies. Fifthly, the relegation of the obligation to assess student performance to external agencies is inconsistent with the spirit of university autonomy. The purpose of the remedial courses, designed as a bypass of the benchmark requirement to ensure all students graduate, is inconsistent with the spirit of education and the honesty code of administrative behavior. Based on these arguments, we urge the MOE and universities to re-examine this English benchmark policy for graduation in the true spirit of education and reform the university English education.