On a recent student recruitment trip to Hong Kong, I talked to a few friends working in the field of education there.
“Most Hong Kong high-school students would prefer to study at a Hong Kong university. Their second choice would be a university in an English-speaking country like the UK or Australia. Taiwan would be their third choice,” they said.
I asked what Taiwanese universities had to offer Hong Kong students. After thinking about this for a time, one said: “Lower tuition fees.”
In Taiwan, the government allocates public universities, on average, only a third of what universities in Hong Kong receive, and a 10th of what they get in the West. And yet, with the exception of a small number of countries — like Germany, where the fees are similar to those charged in Taiwan — state universities in most nations, including the UK, charge their students approximately five times more than Taiwanese universities do.
While tuition fees in Germany are similar to those in Taiwan, the German government covers a majority of the charges. Taxes are also higher in Germany than in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese government is reluctant to increase subsidies — with the exception of project-based funding for a handful of universities — and yet, forbids universities to increase tuition fees.
If Taiwanese universities cannot compete internationally through higher standards or lower fees, they will be reduced to competing on low costs at the expense of quality, as the manufacturing sector did in the past.
Universities are left with three options: fund-raising, turning a profit or cutting costs.
Fund-raising is targeted; the money is spent on designated purposes, such as on specific scholarships or buildings, and so this does not help in terms of the university’s expenditure.
Profit-making initiatives, such as renting out premises and facilities, or starting or expanding certain courses, will detract from the university’s intended function and affect its academic reputation.
Finally, there is reducing costs, such as a hiring freeze, slashing department budgets, reducing activities or postponing the replacement of equipment and facilities. However, these will only lead to cheapened universities.
Students attending public universities in Taiwan tend to come from a higher socio-economic background than those studying at private universities, yet they also enjoy better educational resources.
Disadvantaged students account for approximately 9 percent of the population at public universities, compared with 12 to 23 percent for private schools. The former pay on average NT$50,000 per academic year in tuition fees compared with NT$110,000 for the latter.
The government should allow public universities to increase their tuition fees, and then reallocate funding to subsidize students at private universities.
Wealth disparity is increasing, and one of the most important strategies for reducing this disparity would be to improve the socio-economic status of disadvantaged students through the reallocation of education resources.
With government funding, it would be possible for there to be parity between tuition fees for universities in both sectors.
The government needs to do more than reallocate education resources between public and private universities. It should also require each institution to undertake an internal reallocation of resources. This would entail changing the tuition fee structure to benefit the disadvantaged by, for example, providing scholarships to those who cannot afford to pay.
Chan Chih-yu is a professor at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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