Taiwan Education: Lee Yuan-tseh's Perspective

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TAGS: ECON KPAO SCUL SOCI TW
SUBJECT: Taiwan Education: Lee Yuan-tseh's Perspective

REF: TAIPEI 2768


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In an interview with AIT, Nobel Prize
winner and education reform leader Lee Yuan-tseh gave his
perspective on issues in Taiwan higher education. Lee
expressed concern that colleges continue to upgrade to
university status, leading to more mediocre institutions and
students. He supports the US$1.5 billion budget to get a
Taiwan research university into the international top 100.
Lee criticized the Ministry of Education for bowing to
political pressures to freeze tuition, and said Taiwan needs
to adopt a more American-style university admissions system.
End summary.


2. (SBU) Lee Yuan-tseh is an influential public figure in
Taiwan academia and politics. A Nobel Prize winner in
chemistry, Lee has served as president of Academia Sinica
since 1994 and is one of the architects of education reform
in Taiwan (described reftel). He headed the initial reform
commission in 1994 that recommended the expansion of higher
education and changes to curricula to emphasize Taiwan
history and culture. Since then, Lee has been a focus of
criticism of education reform. Students and parents have
blamed Lee for initiating reforms that increased the
academic burden on students, led to frequent and confusing
changes to curricula, and encouraged rapid growth in the
number of universities that left the system over-expanded
and under-funded. In the past several years, Lee has
participated less frequently in public debates over
education reform, but has remained deeply involved in higher
education issues. In an interview with AIT, Lee gave his
perspective on current issues in Taiwan higher education.

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Too Many Mediocre Universities and Students
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3. (SBU) Lee echoed the most common criticism of education
reform, stating that Taiwan has too many mediocre
universities and colleges. He noted that although the
Ministry of Education (MOE) had pledged to stop the flow of
new institutions, it recently approved several colleges to
upgrade their status to universities. Just this week,
President Chen Shuibian called for establishment of a new
technical college on a visit to the Pescadore Islands. Lee
predicts that despite widespread criticism, the number of
colleges becoming universities will continue to rise, and
stated that the trend is worrisome. As a result of the glut
of universities and colleges, Lee said a university
education is becoming the equivalent of a high school degree
- it is increasingly required to do even very low-level
jobs. He noted that people in Taiwan see university as a
"rung on the social ladder to white-collar jobs," which they
think will be easy and high-paying.


4. (SBU) Discussing Taiwan students' often-cited "lack of
international perspective," Lee finds the general
perspective in Taiwan to be fairly narrow and domestically
oriented, and criticized Taiwan news media for its lack of
international coverage. However, he noted that there are
many young people in Taiwan who have attended school in
North America, giving them international experience and good
English skills. Lee stated that he's not concerned about
the caliber of top students -- it's the level of the average
student that needs work.

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US$1.5 Billion Will Get Taiwan in the Top 100
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5. (SBU) In a bid to raise Taiwan universities'
international profile, the government has launched the World-
Class University Initiative, with a special budget of US$1.5
billion over five years. The budget will most likely be
given entirely to one or two universities, with the goal of
getting a Taiwan research institution into the international
top 100 in the next ten years. Lee has been a major
proponent of the initiative. He said that while it would be
difficult to quickly raise a Taiwan university to the level
of Harvard or MIT, he is confident that they can reach a
high level of international recognition. There has been
criticism of the decision to focus the funding on only one
or two universities rather than spreading it over a larger
group, but Lee defended it as the most effective use of the
money. He said that Taiwan is experiencing the tendency of
a democratic society to spread its money too thin, but that
he would even be satisfied with spending half of the budget
on one university and dividing the other half among a larger
group.

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University Merger Inevitable, With or Without Vote
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6. (SBU) Two top Taiwan institutions, Tsinghua and Chiaotong
Universities, had planned a merger that would make them the
top candidate for the special budget, but in late June the
Chiaotong faculty voted down the merger proposal. Lee, who
participated in planning for the merger proposal, expressed
disappointment at the vote, but said Tsinghua and Chiaotong
will continue to collaborate, and a de facto merger would
happen eventually. He noted that the two universities have
neighboring campuses and are very similar in their emphasis
on science and technology. In discussions with the faculty
of both universities, Lee found that they have the same
ambitions, so it makes sense that they should collaborate
more closely. While there is some opposition to change,
especially among alumni, the majority of stakeholders were
in favor of the merger. The vote was 3 to 2 in favor at
Chiaotong, and 10 to 1 in favor at Tsinghua, but since
Chiaotong required a two-thirds majority to pass the
proposal, it failed. Lee hopes the MOE will encourage them
to establish communal dorms, a college of medical science,
and hospital, but says the two should keep the undergraduate
colleges separate to maintain their identities. While
further mergers have been suggested as a solution to the
oversupply of universities, Lee argued that mergers require
careful planning, and that they work best if campuses are in
close proximity.

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MOE Waffles on Tuition Increases
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7. (SBU) In late July, the MOE announced that, after a
series of protests by student groups and Taiwan Solidarity
Union (TSU) legislators, it would reduce the final number of
universities permitted to increase tuition next year from
eighteen to ten. (The MOE had originally proposed 63
institutions, but reduced it to 18 after an earlier round of
protests.) Lee said the MOE's most serious problem is that
education issues have become too politicized, and the MOE
doesn't have the political will to make unpopular decisions
like raising tuition. He argued that Taiwan has only been a
democracy for about ten years, and that people don't yet
understand the consensus-building process. Lee said the
MOE's tendency is to listen to the loudest dissenting
voices, and choose the option in which nothing changes.

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Taiwan Needs US-Style University Admissions
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8. (SBU) Lee raised the issue of university admissions,
which is primarily based on entrance exam scores. Since
2002, some university departments have had the option of
admitting students through a "special channel," which is
similar to the American admissions system. Lee noted that
the students admitted through the special channel are the
most motivated and best-performing, because they have a true
interest in the subjects they are studying. Under the
entrance exam system, students do not necessarily study the
subjects which most interest them, but end up in the most
prestigious departments their scores will permit. Lee argued
that to get more motivated students, Taiwan needs to further
change university admissions to rely less on entrance exam
scores. He said that in order to make these changes,
universities will need a higher degree of autonomy from the
MOE.

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Comment
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9. (SBU) A highly educated workforce has been the driving
force behind Taiwan's economic development, and remains its
best hope for continued growth. For this reason,
expectations for the education system are extremely high,
and criticism of its quality is common. While Lee Yuan-tseh
has in the past often been the focus of this criticism, he
is not as directly involved in policymaking as he was in the
1990s. For an ally of the Chen administration and leader of
Taiwan academia, Lee has been fairly critical of the MOE's
current leadership, and of the results of the reforms he
initiated. End comment. (Cable prepared by AIT Econ intern
Anne Bilby.)