Education Ministry Closely Monitors 35 Unviable Universities and Colleges

Education Ministry Closely Monitors 35 Unviable Universities and Colleges

Source: China Times

November 4, 2015

As Taiwan’s low birth rate is impacting higher education enrollment, many universities now must consider closing down or transforming. While attending a Legislative Yuan interpellation session yesterday, Education Minister Wu Sehwa (吳思華) noted that the Education Ministry was proactively monitoring 35 universities and colleges with excessively low enrollment rates.

In response to problems created by Taiwan’s low birth rate, the Education Ministry recently reviewed the number of students that 89 technological and vocational colleges hope to enroll in 2016. The Education Ministry has reduced the enrollment by 30% to 50% for 62 colleges. In addition, some departments of these colleges will be allowed to enroll only 10 to 15 students. This raised eyebrows in various circles.

Minister Wu said that the Education Ministry had analyzed the enrollment of each university/college, and that the Ministry would first monitor 35, whose poor enrollment made them unviable. As to the case of Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce (永達技術學院) in Pingtung County, located in Southern Taiwan, which had failed to pay its teachers for months, Wu said that it had submitted a transformation plan to the Ministry in August. After a review by a panel of experts, the Ministry had recommended that Yung Ta Institute improve finances, seek a consensus of the board of trustees, and coordinate with local governments, said Wu.

Wu also said that since last year, the Ministry had begun to inform all universities and colleges of the opportunity to submit transformation plans. Now the Ministry had received more than 170 transformation plans and approved over 40 of them, Wu said, adding that the Ministry would monitor and aid each of them.

[Editor’s Note: The number of universities and colleges in Taiwan began to soar in 1996 during Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration. The number has increased from 67 in 1996 to 156 in 2014.]

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