April 11, 2010 57 Comments
By Dung-sheng Chen, National Taiwan University and Mau-kuei Chang, Academia Sinica
Serious investment in education is thought to be important for development. At the same time, education is expected to increase opportunities for the underprivileged to move up economic and political ladders, and to increase the overall competencies of the prospective workforce of the country. However, education investments, whether they come from public or private domains, function in a competitive world, in which the calculations of costs-and-benefits dominate the allocation of resources. This goes not only for investors, university administrators but also for degree-seeking students. Therefore, a crisis could emerge if education organizations fail collectively, not because of underinvestment, but because of inefficiency associated with unexpected outcomes due to their rapid expansion. For instance, a crisis in higher education can occur when the number of universities increases while the pool of prospective students is shrinking. In the following, we will discuss the urgent issues resulting from the overexpansion of higher education in Taiwan during the past two decades, its impacts on social equality, and the associated pressures for auditing and evaluating the academic performance of universities.
In the twenty years from 1986 to 2006, the number of Taiwanese universities and colleges has gone up from 105 to 163, or a 55% increase. In 2006, Taiwan had a total student body of 1,313,993 undergraduates. And there were 163,585 in masters programs, and 29,838 in doctoral programs. These numbers represent a 197% increase of the undergraduates, a 136% increase in masters students, and a 125% increase of doctoral students, suggesting a very rapid expansion of higher education, which can be attributed to educational reform, occurring in Taiwan’s post-authoritarian era, especially since the 1990’s.
It is fair to say that competition among universities could help to improve the overall quality of education by providing prospective high school graduates with more choices. Expansion could also improve opportunities of younger generations who otherwise would have had little opportunities to gain a college degree just because of underinvestment in higher education. While all the above may sound good, it remains debatable whether this expansion and the increasing “choices” automatically help to improve students’ life chances.
We can begin to look closely at the expansion of different sectors of the university system. Data indicate that private universities and colleges have grown much faster than public ones, in both enrollment numbers and number of schools. During the period from 1986 to 2006, undergraduate enrollment in public universities and colleges increased 2.67 times, while it increased 5.17 times in private sectors. This discrepancy in expansion is also shown in the composition of the entire undergraduate body. In this same period the proportion of undergraduates enrolled in private institutions, jumped from 62.5% to 73.7%.
However, it becomes alarming when we consider how social inequality is reproduced through higher education. First, established public universities enjoy competitive advantages which they have accumulated through many years. Similar to the European higher education model, public universities and colleges receive generous governmental support while restricting the marketization of higher education. In the early days, before liberalization, public universities could recruit qualified faculty members more easily, establish better research and teaching facilities, and offer better training to students. They could even afford to do so while charging low student fees in comparison to private universities because of government subsidies. With the help of a unified national college entrance examination, public universities always get the “better” students. Ordinarily, students got to “choose” their university, based on the result of a common examination. Today, though college entrance system has been modified, about eighty percent of freshmen still enter colleges through the national examination. This makes it very difficult for private universities, especially the newly established ones, to “catch up” since they receive little government subsidies and charge higher fees, and at the same time they cannot offer a better quality education. Expansion and competition thus have a bigger negative effect on private institutions than on public ones, on newer institutions rather than older ones, on southern institutions rather than northern ones.
Consequently, public institutions can still attract the better high school graduates, who come from the upper-middle or middle class families. As for students from lower-middle or lower classes, who tend to be less “competitive” in the system, they continue to have fewer options and thus find themselves in the less preferred private institutions. They tend to pay higher fees and receive possibly poorer quality education, and, in the end, a diploma that is likely to be less respected. The unintended result is a continuing and perhaps even deepening gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged, thereby offsetting increases in social mobility, which was the intended outcome of education expansion.
Lagging behind public universities is not the only problem for private universities. The second problem they confront is the shrinking pool of prospective students. The problem has its roots in the sharply declining fertility rate in Taiwan (possibly the lowest in the whole world in 2009). For instance, the total numbers of births was 309,230 in 1986, but by 2007 the figure was down to 204,414, or a 33.9% decrease,. and there is no sign of the trend reversing in the near future. Therefore, some higher education institutions, especially private ones, face a serious challenge in recruiting sufficient numbers of students just to survive. Moreover, this problem cannot be solved by lowering tuition fees or by struggling to raise the quality of education. Among all divisions of the academic world, social sciences and humanities, perhaps with the exception of management and economics, are the most likely to take the hardest hit, regardless of whether they belong to private or public universities. When all things are considered, sociology and related departments in some private universities are at risk of being the first tier for restructuring or closure.
Lastly, we come to the issue of auditing — the evaluation of departments and of faculty performance. Competition is not limited to domestic comparisons in today’s world. As in many places, perhaps more so in Asia, the quality of institutions and faculty performance is evaluated by a series of universal quantitative academic indicators, such as the citation impact index, the number of papers published in top journals, etc. This is especially so for some top public universities in Taiwan. They are guided by an education policy that seeks excellence on a global scale and, for instance, sets its goals on being among the “top 100 universities” in the world. However, this sort of evaluation system automatically privileges English publications, and gives more credit to publications written in English than in local languages. They ignore the needs of the local and marginalize indigenous knowledge. Historical and social contexts are overlooked as academics pursue a global audience, which easily lead to all sorts of biases in scholarship.
In conclusion, we can say it is very important for researchers in the humanities and social sciences to be sensitive to local issues, while situating them in the larger picture of world context and world history. It is important to initiate locally significant research topics, as well as addressing research findings to local audiences. If they were to publish their research in foreign languages exclusively and to cater to the interests of international audiences only (for sake of publication), then they would become totally irrelevant to Taiwanese publics and ignore many significant issues in Taiwan. The result would be a pathological distortion of the rich heritage of our sociological discipline.
…A Friend recommended your blog…
[...]I am no longer certain the place you’re getting your information, but great topic.[...]…
I have heard Kuan Hsing Chen make much the same point, and have heard this English-citation policy (actually more like the UK mode than the US one as I see it) echoed and blasted by academics in South Korea and Singapore, to little avail now it the case even more so in Taiwan the most open site of them all at university level it seems to me, PRC just retrograde in this university mode (iron rice bowl rules!) as in so many open forms like internet or facebook or even allowing a Bob Dylan concert into its state policed domains: As in many places, perhaps more so in Asia, the quality of institutions and faculty performance is evaluated by a series of universal quantitative academic indicators, such as the citation impact index, the number of papers published in top journals, etc. This is especially so for some top public universities in Taiwan. They are guided by an education policy that seeks excellence on a global scale and, for instance, sets its goals on being among the “top 100 universities” in the world. However, this sort of evaluation system automatically privileges English publications, and gives more credit to publications written in English than in local languages. They ignore the needs of the local and marginalize indigenous knowledge. Historical and social contexts are overlooked as academics pursue a global audience, which easily lead to all sorts of biases in scholarship.”
I think you would find this site https://persuasivepapers.com/ pretty interesting. It would helps you to learn a persuasive essay writing.
Maybe we need to seriously consider coloring in as a color in education!
Very wonderful information can be found on weblog.
I am delighted that I found this web site, just the right info that I was looking for! .
Howdy! I am also a tutor. I appreciate you for producing such an fantastic comment. Being from Alpine , has provided me with a great clarity on what is needed to consider a trip to Sumiton. My Wife And I will continue to come and check your website to better to learn where to go after we arrive to Atlanta ga. Kindly keep on posting and present us your opinions on University of Oklahoma (OK). Plan to see you later on at the upcoming job fair at Sprint. Cheers.
wow a greater
none of them
the friends
where is it ?
I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Superb blog and amazing design.
Special Thanks for this from your friends
Thanks for this one always
thank you for this great info
so much good info here thanks
just what i was looking for once again and thanks
just what i was looking for once again and thanks
I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Terrific blog and amazing design.
Hello admin, i must say you have hi quality content here.
Your page should go viral. You need initial traffic boost only.
How to get it? Search for; Mertiso’s tips go viral
Playing online games is good for us because If we play with our friends so we can play with friends and do entertainment.
nice and use full blog
in taiwan i think study is good https://www.cricketwcup2019.com/2019/01/live-streaming.html and top level.
a friend of mone is looking for this https://windowsmodulesinstallerworker.com/
I think that you need to check out this post https://college-homework-help.org/blog/freshman-year for some tips on how to stay alive during the freshman year
I like viewing web sites which comprehend the price of delivering the excellent useful resource free of charge. I truly adored reading your posting. Thank you!
That’s impressive blog. It’s cool much.
Basic education should be strong for higher education.
If you are students of class 10th 12th, here is a good website to clear your basic education: https://cbseexercise.in/
Great web sitte yyou have here.. It’s hard to find high-quality writing likoe
yours nowadays. I seriously appreciate individuals like you!
Take care!!
This article is very long and interesting, but it can be very useful.
wow, awesome article post.Thanks Again. Want more.
Qweetly.com is a place where one can read templates of different academic papers on a huge variety of subjects. All the samples are absolutely free.
https://qweetly.com/
The sharing helps me with a lot of useful information. Thank you!
I have read through some similar topics! However, your article gave me a very special impression. I hope you continue to have valuable posts like this or more to share with everyone!
The information is very special, I will have to follow you, the information you bring is very real, reflecting correctly and objectively, it is very useful for society to grow together.
nicee
Taruhan Balapan Mobil NASCAR di Sportbook dapat kalian pasang dengan mudah menggunakan fasilitas online dari situs resmi sportbook.
Ada kegembiraan instingtual saat kita mendengar deru mesin. Itu adalah bagian dari undian ke NASCAR. Menjadi salah satu liga motorsport teratas di dunia, NASCAR menarik aksi taruhan paling banyak di Amerika Serikat.
Thanks for the sharing. This is my first time visiting your blog. Really I like your Blog. Keep doing more like this.
برگزاری همایش مشاوره کنکور
برگزاری همایش مشاوره کنکور
برگزاری همایش مشاوره کنکور
سفارش موشن گرافیک تهرانسفارش موشن گرافیک تهرانسفارش موشن گرافیک تهران
I work in a writting company. We help students with essays, homework. Contact me to find out more.
I like this post, And I guess they are happy to read this post, they will get a good site to generate information, thanks for sharing it with me.
It was useful, thank you
TVS Jupiter is a 110 cc scooter that is available in three variants in India. The 109 kg scooter is available in 13 colors thereby offering you a wide choice. The scooter offers you hassle-free startability in all weather conditions thereby keeping you at ease.
I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realise I’m listening to it.
Thank you for the information, may be useful to all who read this article. There are utilities available so you can immediately join the game experience https://mahjongonlinefree.com/. The card game is extremely hot and useful
This blog is so good. It contains all the necessary information needed. I appreciate the hard work of the creator of this blog. Thanks for sharing. Visit our website for the best.
Thank you for this wonderful post! It has long been extremely helpful. I wish that you will carry on posting your knowledge with us thanks for sharing this post.
The great thing about this blog is the conversational tone and the real person behind the brand. I found this post I liked everything in this post this post is beneficial for me.
This post is very wonderful, after reading this post, I have got information and that information is very beneficial for the dead, you write well, thanks for sharing the post.
Thank you for your helpful sharing, I also found a lot of free peppa pig coloring pages for kids at peppa pig kleurplaat printen
Find car blog in the world, even the cheapest company that mixes the drive for a valued buyer.
online games play
It is known to be the best on the market when it comes to its engine performance, handling on any terrain, and comfort. The exterior is made of panoramic glass to make it seem as if drivers are sitting in a car with no roof.
This puts us at risk of experiencing hitherto unthinkable losses in prosperity moto x3m. Therefore, politicians must provide the business community with clear solutions and action right now.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. If you need any Aluminium formwork then do visit us on the link.
BitLife is a popular life simulation game where players make choices as a virtual character and see the consequences play out over the course of their life. Bitlife is praised for its realistic depiction of life events and scenarios, as well as its entertaining and addictive gameplay. Players enjoy the game’s humorous writing and its ability to keep players engaged for hours as they make choices and experience life’s ups and downs.