Quality Assurance in Taiwan Higher Education: Regulation, Model Shift, and Future Prospect

Abstract

For the past two decades, the quality assurance (QA) system in Taiwan has undergone substantial transformation from an unsystematic approach to a more comprehensive mechanism. As a result of notable university requests for deregulating university governance and management, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan decided to launch the self-accreditation policy in 2012 in order to increase university autonomy and build internal QA mechanisms on campus (MOE, 2013). In 2017, the policy was applied to all Taiwan universities. Based on this wider policy context, the purpose of this paper is to better comprehend: (1) governmental policy in constructing a national QA system in Taiwan higher education since 2000; (2) a QA model of Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation of Council (HEEACT) in Taiwan, and its impact; (3) context of the paradigm shift from a focus on external review to internal QA; (4) future prospects for QA policy and an examination of a new role for the national QA agency. In addition, Olsen’s governance model as an analytic framework is applied for examining the relationship between QA agencies, government, and institutions in Taiwan over the past decade.