Higher Education Reform in Taiwan and Its Implications on Equality

As a result of massification of higher education and the quest for competitiveness, the Taiwanese government has adopted a series of higher education reforms since the late 1990s. While the low birthrate has become a potential threat, recent developments in higher education policies such as the Prog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chinese education and society 2012-09, Vol.45 (5-6), p.134-151
Main Author: I-ru, Chen Dorothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Competition
Disabilities
Educational Change
Educational Policy
Employment Opportunities
Equal Education
Foreign Countries
Gender Differences
Higher Education
Majors (Students)
Race
Reputation
Salary Wage Differentials
Selective Admission
Social Class
Social Sciences
Socioeconomic Background
Taiwan
Universities
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Summary:As a result of massification of higher education and the quest for competitiveness, the Taiwanese government has adopted a series of higher education reforms since the late 1990s. While the low birthrate has become a potential threat, recent developments in higher education policies such as the Program for Developing First-Class Universities and Top Research Centers, the Incentives for Teaching Excellences, and the new Multiple Examination Program have had considerable effects on students of different gender and socioeconomic classes. Even though the expansion in higher education has enabled many students to enter universities, inequality remains, as students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are distributed to different types/ranks of universities. Students from the lower socioeconomic class are mostly concentrated in private or vocational (science and technology) universities, while students from well-off families have better chances to enter elite universities. Moreover, the gender segregation in different fields of study has not been improved as a result of the aforementioned massification. Female students are still concentrated in the humanities and social sciences and encounter more difficulties in finding jobs upon graduation. Consequently, these graduates' salaries tend to be much lower compared with their counterparts in science and technology fields. The study further argues that class and gender are actually intertwined and should not be examined separately. In addition, issues such as race and disability need to be closely examined, as the number of students with mothers from Southeast Asia and Mainland China has been significantly increasing in Taiwan these days.
ISSN:1061-1932
1944-7116
DOI:10.2753/CED1061-1932450510