Higher education has long been considered a key to promoting industrial development and changing the nation’s economic fortunes, or at least, to cultivating talent and enhancing Taiwan’s competitiveness.
For the younger generation, higher education has also been understood to lead to reliable employment and an improved quality of life over the long term.
However, in the past several years, some private colleges and universities have seen enrollment shortfalls, which some people link to oversupply and the nation’s low birth rate, while others blame a slowing economy and the government’s restrictive educational policy. Critics have called for the government to solve the issue, including the establishment of a merger or exit mechanism for private institutions.
Last week, Kao Fong College of Digital Contents in Pingtung County said it was disbanding after years of student shortages and financial difficulties, making it the nation’s first private college to shut down. Another Pingtung-based private college, Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce, was told by the Ministry of Education to halt admissions for a year to focus on restructuring. Several other private schools, including Kaomei Junior College of Health Care and Management in Greater Kaohsiung and Hsing Kuo University in Greater Tainan, are on the ministry’s radar.
Problems faced by private schools have continued to grow since the number of higher education institutions ballooned from 99 in 1972 to 162 thanks to a government policy to promote new schools.
Yet according to a white paper on education released by the ministry in December last year, the falling birth rate will have the most severe impact on school enrollment in 2016, with 55,000 fewer students for colleges or universities — almost a 20 percent decline from 1997. The economy will suffer, as the white paper also says the total productivity of graduates in 2028 will need to be double that of last year’s graduates to maintain the nation’s development, if the birth rate remains low and the proportion of elderly people continues to increase.
There are more people than ever seeking higher education, alongside growing concern that the number of colleges and universities has led to an oversupply of graduates, high unemployment among young people and lower starting salaries. As the quality of higher education has not grown accordingly, worries over the nation’s educational competitiveness increase, too.
A vicious cycle stalks poor-performing schools: The lower their performance, the less attractive they are to students, leading to lower enrollment, rising financial difficulties and reduced faculty and staff numbers, which spark labor disputes, which in turn fuel academic underachievement and hurt graduates’ employment prospects.
The government should take full responsibility for this oversupply and poor quality because it encouraged the establishment of private institutions, but did little to ensure quality control. The ministry initiated its reform plans in 1999 and offered exit guidelines to institutions, but the problems remain, with the ministry planning to reduce the number of colleges and universities to about 150 this year.
A responsible government must tell the public that they have a path to prosperity through higher education or other alternatives, instead of talking about institutional exit mechanisms without guiding schools toward success. The ministry intends to close or merge schools with lower enrollment rates, but is only pushing schools to focus on recruitment, rather than on other efforts to stay competitive.
Moreover, not understanding what challenges face private schools — whether their tuition is inadequate, why most of them lack unique characteristics and whether the government’s unfair resource allocation affects them — poses a real crisis in the future of higher education.
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
When it became clear that the world was entering a new era with a radical change in the US’ global stance in US President Donald Trump’s second term, many in Taiwan were concerned about what this meant for the nation’s defense against China. Instability and disruption are dangerous. Chaos introduces unknowns. There was a sense that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might have a point with its tendency not to trust the US. The world order is certainly changing, but concerns about the implications for Taiwan of this disruption left many blind to how the same forces might also weaken
As the new year dawns, Taiwan faces a range of external uncertainties that could impact the safety and prosperity of its people and reverberate in its politics. Here are a few key questions that could spill over into Taiwan in the year ahead. WILL THE AI BUBBLE POP? The global AI boom supported Taiwan’s significant economic expansion in 2025. Taiwan’s economy grew over 7 percent and set records for exports, imports, and trade surplus. There is a brewing debate among investors about whether the AI boom will carry forward into 2026. Skeptics warn that AI-led global equity markets are overvalued and overleveraged
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday announced that she would dissolve parliament on Friday. Although the snap election on Feb. 8 might appear to be a domestic affair, it would have real implications for Taiwan and regional security. Whether the Takaichi-led coalition can advance a stronger security policy lies in not just gaining enough seats in parliament to pass legislation, but also in a public mandate to push forward reforms to upgrade the Japanese military. As one of Taiwan’s closest neighbors, a boost in Japan’s defense capabilities would serve as a strong deterrent to China in acting unilaterally in the
RSS