Community universities raise educational bar

Over the past year-and-a-half, counties and cities across Taiwan have established "community universities," 17 of which are already in operation.

Demonstrating grassroots vitality, these community universities have won wide public support. The Second National Seminar on Community Universities (第二屆社區大學全國研討會) -- held in Kaohsiung on April 8 -- is especially significant in this context. Because almost all community universities are run by NGOs, they represent a spirit of cooperation between the government and the private sector. This spirit allows the government to put private-sector creativity and action to positive use. It also means that that Taiwan's reformist NGOs are gradually discovering windows to reach out to the public. One focus of the seminar was how community universities can attract more people and provide various courses conducive to deepening democracy and developing a new culture, as well as how they can lead social development on a wider scale by rebuilding social values.

In fact, Taiwan's community universities have been facing many difficulties, whether in budget, space, curriculum planning or management -- the many kinds of dilemmas faced by NGOs during their "institutionalization." On the one hand, they are long-term enterprises, and as such must establish systems to handle things like academic affairs, accounting, personnel and procurement. But on the other hand, their mission of educational and social reform requires them to encourage faculty and students not to forget the essence of reform -- realizing ideas and putting awareness into action. Therefore, it has often been reiterated that community universities are not what most people used to call "social education." Rather, community universities should position themselves as a new form of "popularized higher education," aimed at changing the prejudices of mainstream society in the belief that adult lifetime learning is not limited to academics, application or recreation.

In fact, we know from the experience of developed Western countries that universalization of higher and deeper knowledge is an important factor in national competitiveness. "Higher and deeper" does not mean making knowledge more abstruse and complicated. On the contrary, it means cultivating basic independent thinking that allows every adult to be "brave in the use of his own intellect," to absorb new knowledge with an open mind and participate in public affairs with a mature civil education. This kind of concept, very much like the concept of general education (通識教育), is the foundation of curriculum planning at community universities. Some of the courses have received high praise, but small enrollment, creating an impression that community universities may turn out to be money losers. But since community universities are to promote reform in a non-profit spirit, a certain kind of "good stubbornness" is inevitable. In non-profit accounting principles, the so-called "profit and loss" are the standards used by businesses. On the contrary, the "surplus and deficit" of non-profit organizations should be balanced with other social resources to meet the meaning of "taking it from society and using it in society."

The seminar has also provided an opportunity for community universities to share their experiences. Holding the seminar in Kaohsiung also highlighted the significance of a balance distribution of educational resources between northern and southern Taiwan.