The Quality of Education in Taiwan
In today's Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/08/17/2003064110
Dr. Chang Ruay-shiung, the Dean of Academic Affairs at the Hualien-based National Dong Hwa University, comments on the disparity in quality between rural and urban based education. He uses as an indicator of disparity in educational quality the likelihood of a high school student being able to attend the National Taiwan University in Taipei. Citing Business Weekly magazine, Dr. Chang tells us that, "the probability for senior high graduates in Taipei to be admitted to NTU is 16 times higher than the probability for those in the eastern county of Taitung."
While Dr. Chang is correct, rural-education is increasingly lagging behind that of urban schools, he misses a crucial point. The discrepancy exists not just for rural high schools, but also for rural universities. Not only are rural universities of significantly lower quality, this problem of lower quality is in part caused by factors that the central government can not properly address without stronger personal commitement from Taiwanese faculty and university administration.
Let's take Dr. Chang's own school - Dong Hwa - for example. How many faculty members teaching there actually live permanently in Hualien? Any that I have met live in Taipei and commute back and forth for their classes. Almost all of them are waiting for an opening in a Taipei-based school and will move as soon as one becomes available for them. Dong Hwa is certainly not alone with respect to this situation. Parachuting faculty members in from Taipei is a common problem for the better rural schools.
And of course it would be. It is almost academic suicide to live and teach in such an environment. The libraries of rural universities are inferior. There are no serious conferences or academic activities happening outside the major urban-based schools, so it would be difficult to keep in touch with colleagues. On top of this, it would be difficult to recruit qualified graduate students to assist with faculty research.
It is possible to promote high-quality universities the major urban centers. Hsinchu with a population of about 300,000 is home to two of the top technology universities in Asia, Ching Hwa university and Jiaou Tong University. The reason for this obvious - the proximity to the science-based industrial park. But equally important has been the policy of the central government and the MOE to support these schools with adequate funding. The government made these schools great with carefully spent money.
There are two problems that emerge from Dr. Chang's short piece. The first addresses the issue of funding. Clearly, the central government is not committed to funding excellent educational opportunities in rural areas. But equally important has been the lack of commitment of individual Taiwanese faculty to living in rural areas and supporting educational efforts there. NTU is the top school in Taiwan not just because it has the best students. It is the top school because it is where everyone goes as soon as they have a chance. In fact, Taipei is where everyone goes as soon as they have a chance. Sure the government is part of this problem, but so are the choices that individual Taiwanese faculty members make.
12:10:54 PM 
The Quality of Education in Taiwan
In today's Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/08/17/2003064110
Dr. Chang Ruay-shiung, the Dean of Academic Affairs at the Hualien-based National Dong Hwa University, comments on the disparity in quality between rural and urban based education. He uses as an indicator of disparity in educational quality the likelihood of a high school student being able to attend the National Taiwan University in Taipei. Citing Business Weekly magazine, Dr. Chang tells us that, "the probability for senior high graduates in Taipei to be admitted to NTU is 16 times higher than the probability for those in the eastern county of Taitung."
While Dr. Chang is correct, rural-education is increasingly lagging behind that of urban schools, he misses a crucial point. The discrepancy exists not just for rural high schools, but also for rural universities. Not only are rural universities of significantly lower quality, this problem of lower quality is in part caused by factors that the central government can not properly address without stronger personal commitement from Taiwanese faculty and university administration.
Let's take Dr. Chang's own school - Dong Hwa - for example. How many faculty members teaching there actually live permanently in Hualien? Any that I have met live in Taipei and commute back and forth for their classes. Almost all of them are waiting for an opening in a Taipei-based school and will move as soon as one becomes available for them. Dong Hwa is certainly not alone with respect to this situation. Parachuting faculty members in from Taipei is a common problem for the better rural schools.
And of course it would be. It is almost academic suicide to live and teach in such an environment. The libraries of rural universities are inferior. There are no serious conferences or academic activities happening outside the major urban-based schools, so it would be difficult to keep in touch with colleagues. On top of this, it would be difficult to recruit qualified graduate students to assist with faculty research.
It is possible to promote high-quality universities the major urban centers. Hsinchu with a population of about 300,000 is home to two of the top technology universities in Asia, Ching Hwa university and Jiaou Tong University. The reason for this obvious - the proximity to the science-based industrial park. But equally important has been the policy of the central government and the MOE to support these schools with adequate funding. The government made these schools great with carefully spent money.
There are two problems that emerge from Dr. Chang's short piece. The first addresses the issue of funding. Clearly, the central government is not committed to funding excellent educational opportunities in rural areas. But equally important has been the lack of commitment of individual Taiwanese faculty to living in rural areas and supporting educational efforts there. NTU is the top school in Taiwan not just because it has the best students. It is the top school because it is where everyone goes as soon as they have a chance. In fact, Taipei is where everyone goes as soon as they have a chance. Sure the government is part of this problem, but so are the choices that individual Taiwanese faculty members make.
12:10:54 PM [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "commentLink" hasn't been defined.]
|
|
|
|
