Reexamining Taiwan's higher education: Political culture and university-government relationship

• In Event: Government relationship with higher education

Proposal

Abstract:

The role of the state has long been a salient feature of higher education governance in East Asian societies. This is despite that their modern higher education systems have been built upon western experiences. Reporting a significant part of the findings from the research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan, this paper examines the role of the state in invigorating universities in their quest for world-class status from a cultural perspective. It interrogates the government-university relationship in Taiwan with a particular focus on how Taiwan’s premier universities work with the government and how the government maintains its influence through the system of checks and balances. Adopting a case study research approach, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with administrators and academics at two flagship universities and with government officials who have been associated with higher education. The study has empirically identified a distinctive social structure with a close relationship between universities, the state and society in Taiwan. It finds that the role of the state remains prominent with decentralized approaches and recentralized government control. This paper finally poses the implications of political culture on Taiwan's higher education governance.

Keyword: Taiwan, higher education, government, political culture


Objectives:

This paper examines the role of the state in invigorating universities in Taiwan in their quest for world-class status. Three major research questions are (1) how do Taiwan’s premier universities work with the government in pursuing their world-class status?, (2) how does the government maintain its influence through the system of checks and balances? and (3) at a system level, in what way does political culture play a role in the development of Taiwan's higher education?

Theoretical Framework - A cultural perspective:

Higher education systems in Asia share two commonalities: the foreign Western origin of their university models and the process of indigenization (Altbach, 1989). They have encountered a painstaking process of integrating Western university models with their traditional values. Efforts have been made to examine such a profoundly difficult cultural experience in all East Asian societies that share many common heritages especially Confucianism.

Viewed from a Boston-based scholar, Altbach (1989) first coined the term twisted roots to describe the difficult cultural conditions of higher education development in East Asian societies, where the dominant Western academic models have been twisted out of shape by lingering and strong traditional East Asia’s values. He illustrates the incompatibility between the Western culture that underlies the function of modern universities and their indigenous values that are deeply embedded in the societies. In recent years, Altbach (2016) has presented the notion of glass ceiling using China as an example. He argues that China’s impressive rise of higher education institutions in some of global rankings over the past decades may soon experience the conditions that inhibit them to reach the top and their full potential for excellence in research and teaching. Furthermore, he refers China’s higher education system as feet of clay with a great mismatch between a few premier universities heavily funded by the government and a large number of under-funded higher education institutions.

From the Oxford-based scholar’s perspective, Marginson (2011) has observed Confucian influence in higher education in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. These societies exhibit a special developmental dynamism and, therefore, have created a distinctive model of higher education development which is even more effective in some aspects than the existing modern university model that has long been incubated in the Western world. These societies have all been shaped by Confucian family commitment to education. They benefit from a strong and effective government system that invests heavily on education and research (Marginson, 2012). Most recently, Marginson (2018) indicates a traditional feature of China’s political culture demonstrating a close relationship between the state and society. This is contrast to that of the Anglo-American split social structure. According to him, given a cohesive body between the state and society, the glass ceiling phenomenon may not likely materialize.

Within the region, Yang (2016b) resonates the challenges faced by East Asian higher education especially by its toxic academic culture that leads to distortions and inefficiency on the institutional and systemic levels. The strikingly different cultural roots and heritages have led to continuous conflicts between the imposed Western higher education values and the indigenous values of East Asia which impact negatively on the quality, efficiency and effectiveness in operation (Yang, 2016a). Yet, such a situation could change. The cultural complexities and contradictions between grafted models and longstanding indigenous values are likely to be resolved, due to the flexible and open perspective of East Asian people (Yang, 2017).

Method:

This empirical investigation seeks to understand the political culture and the relationship between universities and the government in Taiwan. First, the research adopts the case study approach. The purposive cases are two national flagship research universities in Taiwan. By employing a case study research, it examines the administrators and academics’ views concerning how universities work with the government in pursuing world-class status. Next, the study explores the perspectives of how the government supports and supervises the universities from the policy makers who have been associated with Taiwan’s higher education.

The two major research instruments employed to collect data are document analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews. The written institutional and government policy documents on the development of higher education system including push towards world-class universities were reviewed. Simultaneously, documents were reviewed and cross-referenced. The emerging themes derived from the interview data were synthesized with documentary data and related-literature from books and journal articles.

Conclusion:

This study contemplates the invigorating role of the state as a policy driver in a modern Confucian society (Marginson, 2011). On the verge between embracing Western academic values and preserving its lingering and strong traditions, Taiwan’s higher education system has encountered the challenges in integrating the two. The study has identified a close relationship between universities, the state and society. Through the repeated amendments of the University Act, universities have seemingly been given autonomy in some aspects of their operations. However, the role of the state remains prominent resulting in the system with decentralized approaches and recentralized state control. The Ministry of Education strictly retains its supervisory role demonstrating the longstanding sociopolitical order in East Asian societies. This empirical study provides a backdrop to understanding how political culture affects the development of higher education system in Confucian societies.

Author

• Warangkana Lin, I-Shou University