Late one night in February 2014, officials from Pingtung County’s Kao Fong College of Digital Contents quietly announced that the school would close permanently via a message on the school Web site. It became the first-ever college to close due to the nation’s shrinking student population.
Six months later, another Pingtung school, the Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce, also announced its closure, making it the second victim of the nation’s dwindling young population because of a low birth rate.
A former Yung Ta instructor, who wished to remain anonymous, said his research grants were cut by 25 percent in the last few years before the school’s closure.
Photo: CNA
He was also forced to teach up to 22 hours of classes per week in the final semester as many teachers had left by then.
“Students used to ask me about the cut in grants, and I would always tell them to just focus on their studies. I did not want the students to be affected by school affairs,” he said.
Nonetheless, the students were affected. Even though they were able to continue with their studies at other colleges, the teacher said that at least one of his students was forced to drop out because he could not afford to travel to another county for school and back to Pingtung for his part-time job.
The closure of the two schools is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Ministry of Education predicts that the nation’s 18-year-old population is going to shrink from more than 320,000 people last year to 180,000 within 10 years.
Tuition fees received by higher-education institutions are set to drop by NT$30 billion (US$897.64 million) over that period, which means between 20 and 40 universities and colleges in the country might go out of business, studies have shown.
There are currently more than 150 universities and colleges in Taiwan, whose population numbers more than 23 million.
Taiwan’s birth rate has dropped significantly since the 1980s. Before 1983, the number of newborns averaged above 400,000 each year.
The fertility rate then began to drop and by 1998, the number had fallen to about 278,000, largely because it was the Year of the Tiger, considered a bad year to bear children in traditional Chinese culture.
Over the past 10 years, only about 200,000 babies have been born each year.
This year is when the “tiger babies” born in 1998 will turn 18. The number of first-year college students this year is predicted to drop by more than 20,000 from last year.
“2016 is when the ‘tsunami’ [of low birth rates] will hit Taiwan’s higher education,” Association of Private Universities and Colleges of Technology president Ko Tzu-hsiang (葛自祥) said.
No school is fully prepared for the drastic change expected this year, and most are still hanging on and do not want to give up until the last moment, Association of Private Universities and Colleges president Lee Tien-rein (李天任) said.
Faced with this crisis, the Ministry of Education set up the Higher Education Innovation and Transformation Office last year to help schools find innovative ways to reinvent themselves.
Office executive secretary Huang Wen-ling (黃雯玲) said many schools are aiming to capitalize on the “aging society market” by offering lifelong learning courses for retirees.
Others are transforming their campuses for other uses. For example, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology is renovating its classrooms to turn them into postpartum care service and health check centers, Huang said.
Ko Tzu-hsiang and National Alliance of Parents’ Organizations head Wu Fu-pin (吳福濱) have suggested that the government compensate schools to speed up their closure or transformation.
However, Secondary and Elementary School Principals Association director-general Hsueh Chun-kuang (薛春光) said that closing down schools should not be the first option, because once schools are closed, the community around them also suffers.
Schools can be turned into nursing homes, continuing education centers, or cultural and creative parks, Hsueh said, adding that the government should consider the opinions of community residents when assisting schools in their transformation.
Meanwhile, Kao Fong and Yung Ta are also looking forward to changes.
Kao Fong is to be transformed into an elementary and secondary school this year, while Yung Ta will be turned into a social welfare foundation and its 7.6 hectare campus will be used to build nursing homes for seniors and possibly a job training center, officials said.
However, the transformations have not been easy due to outdated regulations that often prolong administrative procedures.
“It is the first time that universities and colleges have had to transform themselves. We have spent a lot of time just communicating with officials and trying to figure things out,” Yung Ta vice chief executive Wang Yi-hsien (王義賢) said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS