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.