After Massification of Higher Education: Questing for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Universities in Taiwan

Abstract

In order to enhance its national competitiveness in the global marketplace, the Taiwan government has followed the US model by expanding higher education through the establishment of a significant number of private universities to fulfill pressing higher education learning needs. In the last two decades, more than 160 universities have been founded in Taiwan, and a higher education enrollment rate of nearly 100 percent has been achieved. The rapid increase in private universities in Taiwan has undoubtedly created an abundant supply of education opportunities; however people in Taiwan have begun to doubt the quality and standard of the graduates. The Taiwan government, making serious efforts to model itself after the US experience when transforming its higher education sector, has now found that the massified university system has created an immense pressure for the Taiwan society to absorb the “oversupply” of graduates into the labor market. This chapter critically examines how universities in Taiwan have made attempts to enhance their global and regional competitiveness through advancing research, development, and innovation.