Expansion and Stratification of Higher Educational Opportunity in Taiwan

Abstract

The global phenomenon of higher educational expansion and opportunity is one of the major social changes since World War II. In 1949, only 1 university and 3 junior colleges existed in Taiwan. After 60 years, the number of higher education institutions had grown to 163, including 147 universities/colleges and 16 junior colleges. The dialectic between equity and access of higher educational opportunity has been a key area for debate among Taiwan educators and policy makers over the last decade. Along with the increasing number of higher education enrollments, the issue related to the stratification of higher educational opportunity becomes an increasingly important issue. Based on premises of two theories—Maximum Maintained Inequality and Effectively Maintained Inequality—the authors analyze the relationship between expansion and stratification of higher educational opportunity via one nationwide higher education survey administered by the Center on Research for Educational Evaluation and Development (CREED) at the National Taiwan Normal University. Findings indicate that the expansion of higher education does not necessarily parallel equal access to higher education. This conclusion is reinforced based on the study's findings that ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender inequalities have generally decreased for higher education students attending the less selective vocational track but increased for those attending the more selective general track.