The Paradigm Shift on Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Taiwan

Abstract

In post-war Taiwan, the operation of higher education institutions (HEIs) has gradually transformed from the state-dominated model to the self-operated along with the line of socio-political modernization. This chapter depicts the historical development of higher education in Taiwan which serves as the factor influencing the implementation of quality assurance in higher education including quality accreditation, quality control, and quality audit. It then moves forward to discuss the current higher education policies associated with the quality assurance, particularly the higher education accreditation in the program level since the year of 2006. Furthermore, currently the Ministry of Education (MOE) has started to encourage more and more of the institutional self-evaluation rather than quality accreditation from Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). Focusing on the theme of quality assurance, the principal investigators adopt McDonaldization and Academic Capitalism as the theoretical concepts to figure out the pro and con of quality assurance in Taiwan’s higher education for figuring out the paradigm shift and seeking some possible niche for the future development.