IAUPIAUP North East Asia ConferenceNorth East Asia Conference

Quality Assurance and Quality Assurance and

Enhancement of Higher EducationEnhancement of Higher Education National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan / R.O.C.

October, 1, 2009, Thursday

Speaker: George Tai-Jen ChenSpeaker: George Tai-Jen ChenVice President for Academic Affairs

University Chair Professor Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences

Some Key Issues on Higher Education in Some Key Issues on Higher Education in TaiwanTaiwan

(1) Rapid expansion of higher education (2) Insufficient government financial support(2) Insufficient government financial support (3) Too many restrictions on university administration(3) Too many restrictions on university administration (4) Deterioration on quality and quantity(4) Deterioration on quality and quantity

Possible SolutionsPossible Solutions

University Strategies for Enhancing University Strategies for Enhancing Education QualityEducation Quality and Excellence pursuingand Excellence pursuing

(1) Teaching evaluation(1) Teaching evaluation (2) Faculty re-evaluation(2) Faculty re-evaluation (3) Teaching and research units assessment(3) Teaching and research units assessment (4) Strategic planning(4) Strategic planning

Table 1 Number of comprehensive and professional universities in 1999–2009. (Ministry of Education)

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Comprehensive University

University 40 43 45 46 50 53 60 62 63 64 64

College 18 22 22 21 19 16 9 7 7 5 7

Subtotal 58 65 67 67 69 69 69 69 70 69 71

ProfessionalUniversity

University 10 12 13 14 17 22 29 29 31 38 41

College 36 50 55 58 55 54 47 47 46 40 37

Subtotal 46 62 68 72 72 76 76 76 77 78 78

Total 104 127 135 139 141 145 145 145 147 147 149

Note: 67 comprehensive / professional universities in 1996.

From 1996 to the year of 2006, the number of universities / colleges has been increased more than two times.

(1) Rapid expansion of higher education(1) Rapid expansion of higher education

Some Key Issues on Some Key Issues on Higher Education in TaiwanHigher Education in Taiwan

Table 2 Number of students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in comprehensive and professional universities / colleges in 1998–2008. (Ministry of Education)

Note: Total number of university / college students was about 6000 in 1949.

An increase of 193 times in number enrollment of university students in 57 years from the time ROC moved to Taiwan to 2006 and 2.6 times in recent 10 years from 1998 to 2008.

Ph.D Master Bachelor Total

1998 10,845 43,025 409,705 463,575

1999 12,253 54,980 470,030 537,263

2000 13,822 70,039 564,059 647,920

2001 15,962 87,251 677,171 780,384

2002 18,705 103,425 770,915 893,045

2003 21,658 121,909 837,602 981,169

2004 24,409 135,992 894,528 1,054,929

2005 27,531 149,493 938,648 1,115,672

2006 29,839 163,585 966,591 1,160,015

2007 31,707 172,518 987,914 1,192,139

2008 32,891 180,809 1,006,102 1,219,802

Total

Ph.DMaster

Bachelor

Fig.1 Number of students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in comprehensive and professional universities / colleges in 1998–2008. (Ministry of Education)

The trend of continuous increase is obvious, particularly the Master students, increased more than four times during this period .

4,500

5,000

5,500

6,000

6,500

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Fig.2 Changes in government appropriations from the Ministry of Education to public universities per student each year (in US $) in 1995–2004.

A dramatic decrease appeared since 1996 when the “Final Report of Education Reform” was being announced.

(2) Insufficient government financial support(2) Insufficient government financial support

Table 3 Government appropriation share of core revenue in % for higher education institutions in different countries. (Ministry of Education ； OECD)

　1995(%) 2000(%) 2001(%) 2002(%) 2003(%)

Australia 64.8 51.0 51.3 48.7 48.0

Germany 88.6 91.8 91.3 91.6 87.1

Sweden 93.6 88.1 87.7 90.0 89.0

U.K. 80.0 67.7 71.0 72.0 70.2

U.S.A m m m 45.1 42.8

Taiwan 50.7 45.6 38.4 42.6 38.9

The government financial support in Taiwan was relatively low and continuously decreased. It caused the relatively low cost of higher education per student as compared to other countries.

Table 4 Yearly tuition and fee of higher education per student (US $) for different countries. (Ministry of Education)

The higher education tuition and fee per student in Taiwan is only 1/4 to 1/3 of the developed countries.

Country Year Public Private Average

GDP

Tuition and fee / Average GDP (%)

Public Private

Taiwan(ROC)

2004 1,755 3,215 14,663 11.97 21.932005 1,831 3,358 15,714 11.65 21.37 2006 1,829 3,330 16,111 11.35 20.67 2007 1,812 3,305 16,855 10.75 19.61 2008 1,866 3,481 17,083 10.92 20.38 2009 1,789 3,298 15,841 11.29 20.82

Japan 2007 6,945 11,030 34,326 20.23 32.13 U.S.A 2005 6,399 26,954 41,961 15.25 64.24 South Korea

2007 3,401-7,040

2,137-9,001

20,015 16.99-35.17

10.68-44.97

Table 5 Tuition and fee share of core revenues in % for universities in different countries. (Ministry of Education ； OECD)

Public Univ. (U.S.A)

(2000–2001)

Non-profit private Univ.

(U.S.A) (2000–2001)

Germany

(1995–1996)

Sweden (1995–

1996)

U.K. (1995–

1996)

Public Univ.

Taiwan(ROC)(2006)

Tuition and fee

18.1 % 38.1 % 0.0 % 0.0 % 24.0 % < 15 %

Besides the countries in the European continent, the percentage is lower in Taiwan than in the other developed countries.

Lack of flexibility of the government personnel and accounting systems, and the similar systems applied to all public universities.

Government regulations on accounting system also apply to all the university revenues such as private gifts and contracts, tuition and fee, and endowment income.

Faculty salary scale is limited by government regulations and mainly based on seniority.

Too many government regulating procedures for engineering construction in university.

(3) Too many restrictions on university administration(3) Too many restrictions on university administration

(4) Deterioration on quality and quantity(4) Deterioration on quality and quantityTable 6 Changes in number of new babies and birth rate in 1981–2009.

(Ministry of Interior Affairs)

The decrease of new babies and birth rate will cause serious problem for recruiting students at some universities.

　 number birth rate (‰)change in birth rate (%)

wrt 1981

1981 414,069 22.97 --1986 309,230 15.93 -25.32 1991 321,932 15.70 -22.25 1996 325,545 15.18 -21.38 2001 260,354 11.65 -37.12 2002 247,530 11.02 -40.22 2003 227,070 10.06 -45.16 2004 216,419 9.56 -47.73 2005 205,854 9.06 -50.29 2006 204,459 8.96 -50.62 2007 204,414 8.92 -50.63 2008 198,733 8.64 -52.00 2009 121,797 5.28 -70.59

Table 7 Changes in number of university graduates in 1997–2007. (Ministry of Education)

The number of graduates from universities with different levels of degree continues to increase rapidly.

　 Ph.D Master Bachelor Total

1997 1,282 14,146 85,802 101,230

1998 1,307 15,016 87,421 103,744

1999 1,455 16,757 100,171 118,383

2000 1,463 20,752 117,430 139,645

2001 1,501 25,900 146,166 173,567

2002 1,759 30,856 176,044 208,659

2003 1,964 35,981 192,854 230,799

2004 2,165 42,334 210,763 255,262

2005 2,614 45,736 219,919 268,269

2006 2,850 49,976 228,645 281,471

2007 3,140 54,387 230,198 287,725

Table 8 Changes in jobless rate (%) for different education levels in 1996–2008. (Office of Comptroller)

At the same time, the number of jobless rate for the university graduates continues to increase.

　 AverageNo school education

Elementary school

Junior high school

Senior high school

Junior College

University

1996 2.60 1.02 1.45 2.77 3.00 3.14 3.13

1997 2.72 1.10 1.86 3.25 3.02 2.85 2.63

1998 2.69 1.04 1.74 2.97 3.09 2.90 2.67

1999 2.92 1.28 2.08 3.28 3.23 3.10 2.69

2000 2.99 0.95 2.18 3.50 3.34 2.90 2.67

2001 4.57 1.60 3.76 5.75 5.12 4.03 3.32

2002 5.17 1.69 4.09 6.28 5.92 4.60 3.89

2003 4.99 1.98 4.30 6.11 5.60 4.32 3.82

2004 4.44 1.35 3.51 5.13 4.87 4.02 4.11

2005 4.13 1.33 2.79 4.61 4.54 3.78 4.23

2006 3.91 1.08 2.38 3.89 4.28 3.55 4.36

2007 　 　 　 　 　 3.36 4.51

2008 　 　 　 　 　 3.44 4.78

Rate

Number

Fig.3 Changes in number and rate (%) of jobless university graduates in 1996-2008. (Office of Comptroller)

A dramatic increase in jobless number and jobless rate occurred after 2000, is closely related to the quality of higher education. This reveals another issue namely the gap between the higher education and the social need.

Over-established universities Merging, transformation, and others

Dilution of resources More budget in higher education

Deterioration of higher education Quality assurance / control and excellence pursuing strategies

Possible SolutionsPossible Solutions

(1) Teaching evaluation (e.g. National Taiwan (1) Teaching evaluation (e.g. National Taiwan University)University)

Teaching evaluation system was established in Dec. 1996

Purpose

Usage of the evaluation results

Teaching quality improvement

University Strategies University Strategies for Enhancing Education for Enhancing Education

QualityQuality and Excellence Pursuingand Excellence Pursuing

Faculty re-evaluation system was established in Jan. 1998, revised in Oct. 2000 and June 2002 ； major revision in Oct. 2004

All faculty members (teaching, research), except those show outstanding performance in teaching or research, need to receive a re-evaluation at every 5-year intervals until the time of retirement.

The employment will be terminated for the faculty member who fails to pass the re-evaluation at the second time.

Restrictions are applied to the faculty member who fails to pass the re- evaluation. (a) increase in salary (b) sabbatical leave(c) extended service(d) administration officer(e) member of all level Faculty Review Committee(f) part-time work outside campus

(2) Faculty re-evaluation (e.g. NTU)(2) Faculty re-evaluation (e.g. NTU)

Non-pass number

Non-pass rate

Fig.4 Changes in number and rate of non-pass in faculty re-evaluation at National Taiwan University in 1999–2008. (Deportment of Personnel, NTU)

The faculty re-evaluation system was first established in 1998 and then revised and improved three times afterwards.

Early retirements

Extended services

1998 Re-evaluation

system

Fig.5 Changes in faculty number of early retirements and extended services at National Taiwan University in 1991–2008. (Deportment of Personnel, NTU)

The faculty re-evaluation system is quite effective for establishing a better environment in excellence pursuing at the National Taiwan University.

Teaching and research units assessment system was established in June 1997

Assessment procedures Usage of the assessment results

Core value Mission Vision / Goal Key strategies for pursuing excellence Medium-range university development plan (2009-2014)

(3) Teaching and research units assessment(3) Teaching and research units assessment (e.g. NTU)(e.g. NTU)

(4) Strategic planning(4) Strategic planning (e.g. NTU)(e.g. NTU)