Public and Private Universities in Taiwan: to Compete Or Not to Compete?

RIHE International Seminar Reports, No.23, 2015 Page101 Public and Private Universities in Taiwan: To compete or not to compete? Robin J. Chen Introduction Since the 1950s, Taiwan has made great strides in higher education. However, its developmental growth has not been stable. Different studies show different ways to distinguish the stages of higher education development: Chen (2008) stated the stages of development in Taiwan from 1949 to the present can be seen as the following eras: early development (1949-1953), embryonic (1954-1971), controlling (1972-1985), releasing martial law (1986-1993), open (1994-). Zhou (2003) describes three stages: in infancy (1987-1988), growth (1989-1993), rising (1994-1998), and criticism and reflection (1999-2003). Different observations all indicate that the scale of higher education in Taiwan began to grow in the 1990s. Although the current higher education scale in Taiwan seems to have ceased expanding, it turns to the focus of source distribution and the international ranking for both public and private universities. This paper explores the uniqueness of institutional support and faculty development in Taiwan’s public and private universities under such phenomena. Development of higher education policy in recent years Impacted by the legitimized discourse of competition and marketization, recent development of Taiwanese higher education generally included rapid expansion and tension between public and private higher education in competing for more resource and public attention. These two essential domains led Associate Professor, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, e-mail: [email protected] 102 Public and Private Universities in Taiwan: To compete or not to compete? Page Taiwan’s universities to their competitiveness and auditing driven by the power of marketization and ranking. Rapid expansion of higher education Historically Taiwan was an elite class-dominant society, a traditional Confucian society with high respect for educated persons with university diploma. According to Taiwan’s Higher Education Statistics, there were only seven schools in Taiwan in 1950 (one university, three independent colleges, three polytechnics), and graduate schools attached to three universities, with 6,665 students. In 2015, the total number of higher education institutions has reached 158, including 123 universities, twenty-one independent colleges, and fourteen polytechnics (Table 1). Table 1. Number of higher education institutes in Taiwan University Independent Polytechnic College Total School public private public private public private public private Year total 1950 1 － 3 － 3 1 7 1 8 1953 1 － 3 － 4 1 8 1 9 1954 2 － 3 2 6 1 11 3 14 1968 6 2 4 10 20 43 30 55 85 1971 6 3 5 9 20 53 31 65 96 1972 6 3 5 9 20 56 31 68 99 1985 9 7 6 6 21 56 36 69 105 1986 9 7 6 6 21 56 36 69 105 1993 13 8 15 15 14 60 42 83 125 1994 15 8 17 18 13 59 45 85 130 2001 27 30 23 55 3 16 53 101 154 2002 27 34 23 55 3 12 53 101 154 2004 34 41 17 53 3 11 54 105 159 2005 41 48 10 46 3 14 54 108 162 2006 41 53 11 42 3 13 55 108 163 2015 47 76 1 20 2 12 50 108 158 Source: Ministry of Education (2015a) Robin J. ChenPage 103 Table 2. Enrollment in higher education- by programs (3 categories) Unit: person;% Science & School Year Grand Total Humanities Social Science Technology T. 915,921 128,298 284,849 502,774 1998-1999 % 100.00 14.01 31.10 54.89 T. 994,283 143,490 320,915 529,878 1999-2000 % 100.00 14.43 32.28 53.29 T. 1,092,102 160,181 358,502 573,419 2000-2001 % 100.00 14.67 32.83 52.51 T. 1,187,225 176,872 398,560 611,793 2001-2002 % 100.00 14.90 33.57 51.53 T. 1,240,292 189,405 425,419 625,468 2002-2003 % 100.00 15.27 34.30 50.43 T. 1,270,194 200,489 437,432 632,273 2003-2004 % 100.00 15.78 34.44 49.78 T. 1,285,867 207,217 446,788 631,862 2004-2005 % 100.00 16.11 34.75 49.14 T. 1,296,558 211,911 450,392 634,255 2005-2006 % 100.00 16.34 34.74 48.92 T. 1,313,993 215,986 459,218 638,789 2006-2007 % 100.00 16.44 34.95 48.61 T. 1,326,029 221,731 464,907 639,391 2007-2008 % 100.00 16.72 35.06 48.22 T. 1,337,455 227,933 473,813 635,709 2008-2009 % 100.00 17.04 35.43 47.53 T. 1,336,659 232,443 476,729 627,487 2009-2010 % 100.00 17.39 35.67 46.94 T. 1,343,603 235,906 485,704 621,993 2010-2011 % 100.00 17.56 36.15 46.29 T. 1,352,084 241,155 496,127 614,802 2011-2012 % 100.00 17.84 36.69 45.47 T. 1,355,290 245,146 508,142 602,002 2012-2013 % 100.00 18.09 37.49 44.42 T. 1,345,973 247,722 512,743 585,508 2013-2014 % 100.00 18.40 38.09 43.50 T. 1,339,849 250,121 516,207 573,521 2014-2015 % 100.00 18.67 38.53 42.80 Source: Ministry of Education (2015b) 104 Public and Private Universities in Taiwan: To compete or not to compete? Page The overwhelming, enrollment rate in Taiwanese higher education during the last fifteen years is shown in Table 2. Although the growth rate has been affected by the low birth rate which has decreased since 2013, the expansion of student enrollments and the increased number of universities has played a crucial role in the development of higher education for the last two decades. (1) Rapid expansion of colleges and universities; Decrease in polytechnics In 2006, the total number of higher education institutes were 163 reaching the peak of university expansion. Due to competition and marketization, the universities began to meet the need for mergers and alliances. Though the number of universities was increasing before 2013 shown in Table 3, the number of polytechnics and colleges was shrinking. That indicates that the latter two forms of higher education were transferred into universities and most of them were private. Further examination of the allocation of public and private universities reveals that the ratio of public and private at the college and polytechnic levels is extremely low (1:20; 2:12); even in the university category the ratio is 48:76. Following the decrease of polytechnics, the government budget for them was hardly affected because transferred polytechnics are private. However, the added number in the university category will enhance tension between public and private universities to competing for resources both domestically and internationally. Table 3. Growing number of higher education institutes Category university college polytechnic School total total Year public private subtotal public private subtotal public private subtotal 1996 16 8 24 21 22 43 67 14 56 70 137 2001 27 30 57 23 55 78 135 3 16 19 154 2006 41 53 94 11 42 53 147 3 13 16 163 2014 48 76 124 1 20 21 145 2 12 14 159 Source: Ministry of Education. (2015c) Robin J. ChenPage 105 (2) Student-faculty ratio of public and private universities Table 4 presents the ratio of students and full-time institute faculty. Public universities had the lowest student-faculty ratio during the past decade. In 1996, the student-faculty ratio of public universities was 13.73. In 2006, it increased to 22.02. The student-faculty ratio of private universities shows a downward trend, from 38.84 to 30.29 between 1996 and 2006. As for colleges though the student-faculty ratio of public colleges was lower than private ones in 1996, and the student-faculty ratio of private colleges (25.90) was lower than public ones (27.32) in 2006. Table 4. Ratio of students and full-time higher education faculty Category Technical and vocational Universities and Colleges Polytechnic colleges School total total Year public private subtotal public private subtotal public private subtotal 1996 13.73 38.84 20.43 16.68 21.60 19.55 20.09 17.84 22.33 21.41 20.60 2001 19.16 32.90 25.75 22.32 28.51 27.14 26.35 9.64 23.24 22.77 26.13 2006 22.02 30.29 26.63 27.32 25.90 26.10 26.51 13.26 15.35 15.18 26.19 Source: Ministry of Education (2008) (3) Private schools play an important role in providing higher education opportunities According to Table 5, among 163 higher education institutes, 108 are private, accounting for 66.26%. Of the 1,313,993 students in post-secondary institutions in 2006 (Table 5), 913,964 are in private schools, accounting for 69.56％. As higher education moves toward the “massive-oriented” or “universal” model (Trow, 1973), private schools play a fundamental part in the expansion of Taiwanese higher education; its contribution cannot be ignored. In delivering to higher education opportunities, private and university institutes demonstrate the process of universalizing Taiwanese higher education. 106 Public and Private Universities in Taiwan: To compete or not to compete?PagePage TableTable 5.5. NumberNumber ofof studentsstudents accordingaccording degreedegree levelslevels Ph.D. Master Bachelor Ph.D. Master Bachelor Polytechnic Total programprogram programprogram programprogram Polytechnic Total No.No. %% No.No. %% No.No. %% No.No.

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