HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Taiwan got excellent global competitiveness in spite of limited natural resources. According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2019 published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, Taiwan ranked 16th overall in global competitiveness among 63 countries, and was notably outstanding in “Economic Performance” and “Business Efficiency Indices.” The reason for Taiwan’s economic prowess is its high-quality human resources, which closely relates to the quality of Taiwanese higher education.

  • Brief introduction

    University/College and Graduate School Education

    The maximum study period for university education (including universities, colleges, universities of technology, and technical colleges) is 4 years (the Post-bachelor Second Specialty Program is 1-2 years, while the bachelor’s program is usually 2 years), and internships can last one-half to 2 years depending on the needs of the subject. For Master’s Degree candidates, the study period is limited to 1-4 years and for Doctoral Degree candidates to 2-7 years.

     

     

  • HIGHER EDUCATION

    Taiwan’s higher education institutions include 2-year junior colleges, 5-year junior colleges, and 4-year universities. Taiwan has 153 universities, colleges, and junior colleges serving over 1.24 million students 2019. Reforms in teacher training have played an important part in the expansion of higher education. Significant improvements in teacher quality can be attributed to policy adaptations and the newly-implemented evaluation system. Currently, Ph.D. degree holders account for over 80% of faculty in Taiwan universities; the figure has increased by 15% in the past 10 years. Professors account for one-third of all teaching personnel. To maintain competitiveness, Taiwan’s government has invested more than US$8 billion in higher education annually in the last five years to encourage universities to enhance their standards for research and teaching, with remarkable results.

    Although Taiwan’s higher education system has gained recognition for its achievements in many areas, tuition remains very reasonable. In 2005, the Ministry of Education and several universities jointly established the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan to regularly evaluate universities in terms of the quality of faculty, teaching, research, and service. The Ministry also encourages universities to obtain international certifications. Taiwan has also secured significant achievements in the area of innovation. In 2019, the World Economic Forum (WEF), ranked Taiwan 4th for innovation among 141 countries. The research and instruction taking place in Taiwan’s universities has created a critical mass of innovation and creativity, and these achievements are consistently recognized in international design competitions including Germany’s iF Awards and the Red Dot Awards.

     

     

  • Higher Technological and Vocational Education

    Institutes of technology and universitiesof science and technology are all established inaccordance with the provisions of the UniversityAct, for the purpose of training people who havehigh-level professional and practical work skills.Institutes of technology and universities of scienceand technology may recruit students to undertakeassociate's degree programs, bachelor's degreeprograms, master's degree programs, and doctoraldegree programs. Students who want to undertakean associate degree program at these institutionsmust meet the same admission criteria as peoplewanting to do a two-year junior college program which is set out in the first paragraph under theprevious heading, and they must complete 80credit hours, to be eligible to receive an associatedegree.Students may undertake a four-yearbachelor's degree program or a two-yearbachelor's degree program if they already have anassociate degree.

    These programs are availablein the daytime, and also in the evening, and inthe evening (in a continuing education division),or at a college of continuing education. Individualinstitutes and universities may establish in-serviceprofessional degree programs if individuals'personal work experience, and requirements aresuitable. Student intake: four-year institute oftechnology programs and two-year junior collegeprograms both enroll students who have graduatedfrom a secondary TVE program of some sort, orwho have an equivalent qualification. The two-yearprograms at institutes of technology enroll studentswho have graduated from a junior college aftercompleting a two-year or five-year program, orwho have an equivalent qualification and pass anentrance exam. Students are awarded a bachelor'sdegree after they graduate from a four-yearbachelor's degree program, or from the shortertwo-year bachelor's degree program students withan associate degree can go into.Curriculum: The system is credit-based.Students in a four-year program must complete128 credit-hours, and students in the two-yearbachelor's degree programs must complete 72credit hours before they can graduate.

    Studentsundertaking a professional master's degree programmust complete 24 credit hours and submit amaster's thesis, and students in a doctoral programmust complete at least 18 credit hours and submit adoctoral dissertation before they can graduate.As well as appointing qualified universitytrainedteacher, people with practical workingexperience may also be recruited from the businesscommunity, in accordance with the RegulationsGoverning Appointment of Professional andTechnological Personnel for University Teaching.