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### Viewing cable 05TAIPEI2768, Taiwan's Higher Education--Initiatives to Improve

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
05TAIPEI2768 | 2005-06-24 09:10 | 2011-08-23 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED | American Institute Taiwan, Taipei

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TAIPEI 002768

    SIPDIS

    DEPT FOR EAP/TC, EAP/PD
    PLEASE PASS AIT/W

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: ECON KPAO SCUL SOCI TW
    SUBJECT: Taiwan's Higher Education--Initiatives to Improve
    Quality and Internationalization

    REF: A) TAIPEI 002252
         B) TAIPEI 02747

    ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Taiwan's higher education system has grown
    rapidly in the past ten years, leaving it over-expanded and
    under-funded.  Educators and employers have recognized the
    need for higher education to improve in quality and become
    more internationalized if Taiwan is to develop a more
    sophisticated research and development capability.  In
    response, the Ministry of Education and other government
    agencies have announced a number of policy initiatives,
    including scholarship programs for more Taiwan students to
    earn graduate degrees overseas and for foreign students to
    pursue degrees in Taiwan.  Cooperation between institutions
    and the private sector is also improving.  The PRC is
    increasingly a competitor for top local and foreign
    students, but Taiwan has not yet made a significant effort
    to position itself as a regional leader in education for the
    Asia-Pacific region.  End summary.

    ---------------------------------
    Issues After a Decade of Reform
    ---------------------------------
    ¶2. (U) Despite more than a decade of reforms, Taiwan's
    education system continues to be criticized for its
    inability to address the needs of a rapidly changing society
    and economy.  There are complaints that reforms have been
    inconsistent and politically driven, varying too much with
    the frequent changes in Ministry of Education leadership.
    This report analyzes current issues with the education
    system, including expansion of higher education, quality of
    graduates, funding, the need for internationalization, and
    cross-straits competition.  Ref B addressed Minister of
    Education Tu's particular role in the reforms; the current
    shortages of skilled high-tech workers will be discussed
    septel.

    ¶3. (U) During Taiwan's democratization in the early 1990s,
    academics and politicians began to question the education
    system's emphasis on exams and rote learning, and the lack
    of widespread access to higher education.  These concerns
    led to a program of reform, intended to open higher
    education to a larger percentage of society and to assist
    Taiwan's transition from a manufacturing to a knowledge-
    based economy.   Curricula at all levels were also changed
    to reflect greater emphasis on Taiwan history and culture,
    and schools were permitted to choose which textbooks they
    would use.  In addition, the university entrance exam system
    was replaced in 2002 with a multiple-channel admissions
    system that provides some flexibility in university
    applications.

    ---------------------------------
    Oversupply Leads to Lower Quality
    ---------------------------------
    ¶4. (U) One reform that had a particularly powerful and long-
    lasting impact on Taiwan's higher education was the
    relaxation of legal requirements for opening universities.
    The primary issue facing Taiwan's education system is an
    excess of supply in higher education, caused by a flood of
    new institutions opening their doors in the 1990s and early
    2000s, and a sharp increase in the number of post-secondary
    students that resulted from these relaxed requirements.  The
    table below shows the increase in institutions and students
    over the past seven years:

                                       1997-1998 2004-2005

    Number of junior colleges,
    four-year colleges,
    and universities                   139         159

    Total students in junior colleges,
    four-year colleges,
    and universities                   856,000     1.28m

    Number of four-year colleges
    and universities                   78          139

    Total students in four-year
    colleges and universities          422,321     1.05m

    The most dramatic increases have been in the number of four-
    year colleges and universities and in the number of students
    attending them, which more than doubled.  This change is the
    result of many junior colleges upgrading to colleges and
    universities without sufficiently improving their faculty or
    curricula.  The astonishing increase in number of schools
    and number of students has affected the quality of teaching
    and research, as well as the quality of graduates entering
    the workforce.

    ¶5. (U) While this increase currently provides a growing pool
    of university graduates for the labor market, the situation
    is projected to change in coming years.  The population of
    Taiwan is aging along with that of the rest of East Asia.
    Taiwan's total fertility rate (average number of births per
    woman) is currently 1.2, among the lowest in the world, and
    its population is projected to drop by three percent over
    the next fifty years.  The Council of Economic Planning and
    Development has projected that if Taiwan's colleges and
    universities maintain their current number of places, they
    will experience a shortfall of more than 60,000 students per
    year when children born today are ready for college.  This
    phenomenon has already started to appear.  Some institutions
    are already having trouble recruiting enough students to
    fill their classes.  The MOE recognizes the need to stop
    growth, and has moved from a policy permitting expansion to
    one encouraging consolidation of schools by the creation of
    joint campuses and programs.  Despite this policy, new
    schools continue to be proposed.  The MOE has recently
    received more than twenty applications for new private
    colleges or universities, but has not approved any.

    ¶6.  (SBU) As a result of the rapid expansion of higher
    education, there has been a perceived decline in the quality
    of education and of graduates entering the work force.  The
    loosening of restrictions on the establishment of
    universities and colleges meant that many private
    institutions opened quickly and sought to increase revenues
    by increasing enrollment.  According to former Ministers of
    Education Dr. Jong-Tsun Huang and Dr. Ovid Tzeng, and Dr. Wu
    Jing-jyi, executive director of the Foundation for Scholarly
    Exchange (Taiwan's Fulbright foundation), the quality of
    teaching at these institutions has declined.   Faculty face
    heavier course loads and more administrative work, leaving
    less time for research and publications.  There are not
    enough highly qualified professors to meet demand, and it is
    also difficult to attract professors from overseas due to
    the lower salaries offered in Taiwan.  As a result,
    universities resort to using less qualified teachers and
    more adjunct professors.

    -------------------------------
    Elite Students Under-Performing
    -------------------------------
    ¶7.  (SBU) Even students at elite universities are perceived
    as not performing up to their potential.   Educators have
    argued that the recent decline in the number of students
    from Taiwan studying abroad has had a negative effect on
    Taiwan's competitiveness.  The expansion of educational
    opportunities in Taiwan has made it less of an imperative
    for elite students to go overseas for undergraduate or
    graduate degrees.  They may find it easier to stay in
    Taiwan, and more useful to make local connections for job-
    hunting after graduation.  Dr. Tzeng, now vice-president of
    Academia Sinica, and Dr. Wu both argue that the quality of
    students in Taiwan has suffered from the decreased emphasis
    on study abroad, and from the lack of competition to get
    into elite overseas universities.

    ¶8. (U) Taiwan employers have also noted a decline in quality
    as they begin to employ new graduates.  Many refer to
    Taiwan's youth born in the 1980s as the "strawberry
    generation" because of their fragility and inability to
    withstand hardship.  Compared to previous generations, these
    workers are perceived as less dedicated and less willing to
    make sacrifices for their work.  A recent survey of Taiwan
    companies conducted by the Council of Labor Affairs found
    that 54% of the companies polled were concerned about the
    quality and loyalty of recent university graduates as
    employees.  A poll by a large Taipei employment agency found
    that about half of employers were satisfied with recent
    graduates, and that on average, a worker from this
    generation had held three jobs in three years in the job
    market.

    --------------------------------
    Financial Resources Under Strain
    --------------------------------
    ¶9. (U) With the expansion of higher education came a
    significant increase in expenditures.  Public and private
    expenditures on higher education jumped from US$3.82 billion
    in 2000 to US$6.08 billion in 2002.  However, spending on
    higher education is still relatively low in Taiwan, and the
    requirement that funding be split equally on a per capita
    basis among all of Taiwan's universities has meant that its
    most prestigious universities are dramatically under-funded
    compared with similar institutions overseas.  At the
    flagship National Taiwan University, per capita spending is
    less than one tenth that at Tokyo University, and one
    seventh that of Hong Kong University.  To remedy this
    situation, the Ministry of Education has proposed a change
    in the funding structure, designating nine universities as
    elite research institutions that would share an additional
    US$300 million per year in funding to stimulate high-quality
    teaching and research.  The funding is currently awaiting
    approval by the Legislative Yuan.  The MOE is also
    considering proposals to increase tuition, which has been
    held at low levels: for undergraduate degrees, average
    tuition at public universities is around US$800 per
    semester, and about US$1450 per semester at private schools.

    --------------------------------------
    Internationalization a Growing Concern
    --------------------------------------
    ¶10. (U) Employers in Taiwan frequently note the difficulty
    of hiring local staff with the necessary English language
    skills and perspective to work in an international
    environment.  Educators have ascribed this erosion of
    language skills and international experience to the decline
    in students going abroad, particularly in the high-tech
    sector, where graduates of elite schools are in high demand.
    These workers find it easier to pursue a masters degree at a
    Taiwan university while continuing to work, rather than take
    the time and effort to go overseas to study.  Many in the
    high-tech and education sectors argue that this trend will
    be detrimental to future innovation in Taiwan's high-tech
    industries, because they will not be able to benefit from
    the pool of internationally trained and well-connected
    scientists and businesspeople that drove the development of
    the high-tech sector in the 1980s.

    ¶11. (U) In response to these concerns, the MOE has set a
    goal of internationalizing the education system, and has
    started several initiatives to promote both the
    international quality of study in Taiwan and study abroad.
    First, the MOE has initiated a program modeled on the JET
    program in Japan, to improve the teaching of English at
    primary and secondary levels by hiring native-speaker
    teachers.  Second, it has encouraged universities to create
    more degree programs taught in English, both to improve
    Taiwanese students' English abilities and to attract more
    international students.  These programs include an
    international MBA program for both international and local
    students at National Chengchi University, and Ph.D. programs
    in the sciences for international students at Academia
    Sinica.

    ¶12. (SBU) In 2003, the MOE established the Taiwan
    Scholarship Program to encourage foreign students to come to
    Taiwan for degree programs.  The program grants up to US$
    1000 per month for students in undergraduate and graduate
    programs: in its first year it funded more than 500
    students, and MOE estimates that it will fund almost 1,200
    in 2008.  Most of the students in the first two years have
    been from the US, Japan, and South Korea.  The MOE also has
    a separate language scholarship program.  Between the two
    programs, the MOE's goal is to increase the number of
    foreign students in Taiwan tenfold within ten years.
    Throughout Asia, there is a trend toward regionalization of
    education.  Students are increasingly going to the PRC to
    study rather than the US, while Singapore and Hong Kong try
    to attract students from China, Southeast Asia, and India.
    According to Rebecca Lan of the Taiwan Scholarship Program,
    the MOE's primary focus is still on North America, Japan,
    and Europe.  However, the Overseas Chinese Affairs
    Commission offers scholarships for overseas Chinese from
    Southeast Asia to attend schools in Taiwan.

    ¶13. (U) Despite these programs, lack of recognition of
    Taiwan's universities in the international academic
    community continues to be a concern.  Educators ascribe this
    problem to insufficient participation by Taiwan academics in
    international conferences, and the small number of English-
    language scholarly publications from Taiwan.  To increase
    international standing, the MOE has set two targets: for one
    of Taiwan's universities to be ranked as number one in Asia
    in a particular field by 2008, and for one to rank in the
    top 100 internationally by 2013.

    ¶14. (U) While Taiwan has traditionally been a major source
    of foreign students for the US and other English-speaking
    countries, educators advocating for greater
    internationalization have argued that Taiwan students should
    go overseas for graduate study in even larger numbers.  In
    2004 the MOE started a loan program to fund students in
    overseas graduate programs.  This year the MOE established
    the Elite Study Abroad project, which will be co-funded by
    CEPD and the National Science Council. The Elite Study
    Abroad program will fund up to 1000 students enrolled in
    specialized overseas graduate programs over the next four
    years.  AIT has also seen increased attention to and funding
    of the Fulbright program by Taiwan authorities.

    ¶15.  (SBU) Dr. Tzeng of Academia Sinica has said that the
    MOE is moving in the right direction towards
    internationalization, but that it is still moving slowly,
    and could increase its efforts.  He recommends that the MOE
    more actively promote Ph.D students going abroad for at
    least part of their study, and to make sure they attend
    elite schools.  The American Chamber of Commerce has also
    recommended that Taiwan encourage overseas study by allowing
    male students to defer compulsory military service until
    after the completion of foreign degrees.  Additionally, the
    MOE currently refuses to recognize degrees earned in foreign
    universities if more than one-third of the degree was earned
    online or in Taiwan.  This restriction does not reflect the
    current trend toward distance learning, and some educators
    have argued that it should be abolished.

    --------------------------------------------
    Insufficient Cooperation with Private Sector
    --------------------------------------------
    ¶16.  (U) Both employers and educators have noted that
    cooperation between industry and universities to train and
    recruit highly skilled workers for the high-tech industries
    has been insufficient to date.  Universities have not taken
    full advantage of opportunities to work with the private
    sector to establish faculty chairs, curricula, scholarships,
    and internships.  This lack of cooperation has several
    causes.  University regulations make it difficult to hire
    adjunct professors from industry.  The academic system does
    not reward professors' collaboration with industry unless
    they produce published results.  Furthermore, restrictive
    labor regulations make summer internships fairly uncommon in
    Taiwan.

    ¶17. (U) Despite these obstacles, there is some cooperation
    taking place.  A number of high-tech companies have recently
    established scholarship programs in the top universities,
    funding graduate students in exchange for an agreement to
    work for the company after graduation.  Additionally, the
    MOE recently announced an initiative to increase its funding
    of technology colleges working with the private sector from
    NT$300 million to NT$5 billion per year by 2009.

    -----------------------------------------
    PRC a Growing Competitor in Education
    -----------------------------------------
    ¶18.  (U) Competition with PRC institutions is a growing
    concern for Taiwan educators.  The quality of Mainland
    China's education system, especially at elite schools, is
    reported to have improved significantly in recent years.  At
    the same time, however, the system has increased
    dramatically in size.  Between 2001 and 2004 the number of
    university students more than doubled, from 1.1 million to
    2.8 million.  The PRC has increased spending on higher
    education, and universities have also benefited from
    investment by the IT sector and merger of institutions to
    conserve resources.

    ¶19.  (U) While some of Taiwan's most promising talent
    continue to be attracted by work opportunities in China,
    they also find it an increasingly desirable place to study.
    Mainland universities come to Taiwan to recruit students,
    and last month, the PRC announced that it will reduce
    tuition for Taiwan students to the same level as mainland
    students, making it even more affordable for them to get
    their degrees across the Strait. However, Taiwan's MOE has
    indicated that it does not plan to recognize degrees granted
    by Mainland schools.  A number of Taiwan universities have
    established executive MBA programs on the Mainland for
    Taiwan businesspeople living there, but the MOE also refuses
    to recognize these degrees.  The number of foreign students
    studying in the PRC has also increased sharply in recent
    years, and it now hosts ten times as many foreign students
    as Taiwan.

    ¶20.  (SBU) Despite the increasing reputation of education on
    the mainland, academics in Taiwan such as Dr. Tzeng and Dr.
    Wu find that the quality of Mainland doctoral programs is
    still fairly low compared with Taiwan.  Dr. Tzeng pointed
    out that Taiwan's universities greatly benefited from
    academics trained overseas who returned to Taiwan in the
    1980s and 90s.  The PRC is only now beginning to develop a
    similar pool of internationally connected scholars, and has
    only encouraged them to return on a very small scale.  It
    will take some time for the PRC education system to benefit
    from their expertise.

    -------
    Comment
    -------
    ¶21.  (SBU) The primary issue in Taiwan's education system is
    now quality rather than quantity.  Recognizing that a highly
    educated population is essentially Taiwan's only natural
    resource, Taiwan's public and academics alike understandably
    hold extremely high expectations for reform. The rapid
    growth of higher education in the past ten years has left
    the system overextended, insufficiently funded and
    inadequately staffed.  To improve the situation, the MOE and
    institutions must focus on slowing growth while improving
    the quality of teaching.  The MOE should continue to
    encourage merging of institutions to address the oversupply
    of places, and focus resources on the selected research
    universities.  Its policies of strengthening science and
    technology in the top universities and expanding links
    between academia and industry are excellent long-term
    strategies and should be continued, especially by removing
    barriers to internship programs and faculty appointments.
    The MOE should also continue to expand its programs to send
    students overseas for graduate study, and to encourage them
    to return to work in Taiwan.  These programs will build the
    highly skilled workforce that Taiwan's high-tech sector
    needs to continue to grow.  While it is perhaps inevitable
    that China will attract both local and foreign students away
    from Taiwan, Taiwan is in a good position to promote itself
    as a relatively high-quality, low-cost place for students
    from the Asia-Pacific region to study.

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