The expansion of higher education in Taiwan has occurred at blinding speed.

Fifteen years ago Taiwan had only 50 universities, colleges and junior colleges. Now the total has increased more than threefold to 162. With the upgrading of vocational colleges and the founding of new universities, student numbers have naturally risen. The number of students in higher education as a percentage of Taiwan's total student population has risen from 15% in 1990 to 39% today. Among those aged 18-22, 57% are now enrolled.

Early on, the ivory tower of the university was a temple of cultivation for society's elite. Its mission was to conduct research, innovate and pass along knowledge. But with the rise of universal higher education, the university's position in society has changed, and universities have begun to be transformed in various ways. These changes are reflected in the elimination and creation of new departments.

Set next to the courses in bra design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, or in musical album design at a British university, the new programs offered by Taiwan colleges and universities may seem rather unadventurous. Nevertheless, with universities opening up to the world around them, and with students showing greater individuality, universities are recombining and altering their departments and programs in varied ways.

Multimedia and games science is a field that combines information technology with the arts, education and media. The photo at right shows students at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology using sensors to record fighting moves.

By way of comparison

According to a 2003 study by Associate Professor Wang Hsiou-huai of National Taiwan University's Center for Teacher Education, the number of new departments established in Taiwan over the past two years has been unprecedented.

In 2002, 53 colleges and universities introduced new programs, which totaled 190. That's four times the 42 programs introduced in 1995. The 456 new programs introduced in 2003 cramped students' hands as they faced ever-longer program preference sheets to rank before taking the joint college entrance exams. And these figures don't even include the programs at universities that have been founded over the past three years, or programs at the 92 vocational and normal colleges. This wave of new programs has hit universities of every type, both traditional (52%) and newly established universities (48%), both public (44%) and private (56%). "It shows that every university," Wang says, "whether new or long established, public or private, has had to face social change and economic challenges and work hard at keeping pace with the times."

Most of the new programs added over the past few years have been in five main areas: high-tech fields, professional skills needed by Taiwan, fields that can help to raise the quality of life, basic arts and sciences, and ethnic languages and culture. Among them, departments teaching professional skills comprise the largest group.

Wang points out that in order to adapt to globalization and cultivate an internationally competitive workforce, there has been tremendous growth in such fields as electronics, communications, materials science, and biotechnology. New programs in professional areas such as business administration, medicine, environmental science, and broadcasting have also been popular.

Notably, there have also been many departments created in the areas of fine arts, sports and leisure, landscape design and so forth, which aim to spur social development in Taiwan, as well as meeting the needs of an aging society and the demand for a more refined quality of life.

Learning while playing

Although the ranking of the most popular and selective programs has not changed much in recent years, with such fields as information management, business administration and electrical engineering remaining on top, among the new departments, programs that can both appeal to students and meet industry needs for "innovation" are attracting attention. Among these, programs related to toys, games and multimedia are among the "best sellers."

Lunghwa University of Science and Technology's Multimedia and Game Science Department has been in existence for four years, and has become popular with students from traditional academic areas such as information engineering, electrical engineering, and the fine arts. Every year it has filled its class, and last year it expanded to two classes. Wang Kuang-sheng, who graduated in the program's first class, has won first prize at Yodex (Young Designers' Exhibition) for the past two years. The awards added luster to the program's reputation.

Mingdao University has made a name for itself with Taiwan's first digital design department. The content of the curriculum includes video transmission, animation and multimedia. Department chairman He Hung-wen notes that although animated video games are the current obsession, they aren't explicitly part of the long-term educational goals of the department. Rather, "the focus is on cultivating talented designers who can use the computer as a tool."

There are several new programs in the area of fashion and beauty. Among these, Mingdao University's Fashion Imaging Department, and the Interactive Edu-tainment Technology and Digital Media Design specialisms in the Department of Information Communication at Yuan Ze University are among the most novel.

Mingdao Fashion Imaging Department chairman Jinny Shih notes frankly that almost all freshmen enter the program with their parents' opposition. The old folks' complaint is always the same: "How does this differ from a vocational program?"

The coursework includes both the technical (posture and appearance and installation art), as well as the theoretical (fashion industry development and creative conception). Apart from imparting skills connected with general styling and creative development, the department is also pushing hard to cultivate fashion industry professionals with a broad range of vision.

Health and leisure go big

In step with the rise of leisure and entertainment, universities have created numerous departments in the area of athletics, health and leisure.

National University of Kaohsiung's Department of Kinesiology, Health and Leisure Studies was established in 2001. Spanning the realms of the arts, the sciences and business, and combining athletics, health and leisure, its 60 places have been filled all five years.

Department chairman Liu Shao-tung notes that although NUK's was the first kinesiology, health and leisure studies department in Taiwan, similar programs have a 30-year history in the United States. Taiwan may not be adopting new programs fast enough.

Despite its name, which suggests fun and games, the coursework itself includes biology, anatomy, physics, economics, statistics and accounting. It is anything but easy. Liu points out that because the curriculum is so varied, graduates find a wide variety of employment, including jobs as trainers, fitness instructors, physical therapists, and injury prevention instructors.

Mingdao University's Department of Holistic Wellness, on the other hand, takes as its mission the cultivation of professional planners and managers. Its content differs completely from that offered at traditional universities. Apart from courses on spas, aromatherapy, circulation, natural therapies, healthy eating and so forth, its required curriculum even includes rowing and rock climbing. The school also boasts a 47,000 square-foot paintball field, so that students can gain first-hand experience in the sport.

Located in Chiayi, National Chung Cheng University, which boasts the largest campus of any university in Taiwan, has launched a "two-front development plan," which combines athletics and academics, through which it hopes to raise the institution's competitiveness. The university is known for athletic facilities that are among the best in Taiwan. Lin Yun Chin-jung, Chung Cheng's director of the athletics, points out that the university's board of directors has already voted to establish a Sports Economics Department, which will be combined with the already existing Graduate Institute of Sport and Leisure Education to create a College of Life Sciences, Sports and Health. On the one hand, they hope the move will establish a special character for the school, and, on the other hand, they want to raise Taiwan's athletic competitiveness.

Multimedia and games science is a field that combines information technology with the arts, education and media. The photo at right shows students at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology using sensors to record fighting moves.

What's in a changing name?

Many of these new programs have been started from scratch, but quite a few are older programs that universities tweaked and renamed. According to Wang Hsiou-huai's research, 12% of these new programs have come as a result of name changes or revisions.

Take colleges of agriculture. In an attempt to exchange a has-been image for cutting-edge hipness, one after another they've renamed themselves, almost always including in the new name the word "bio." NTU's College of Agriculture, for instance, changed its name to the College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture; the Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering was renamed the Department of Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering, the Department of Agricultural Engineering became the Department of Bio-Environmental Systems Engineering, and the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine became the Department of Animal Science.

Looking at these programs, whether renamed or newly founded, one can't help but be curious: What factors are considered in the establishment of new departments? What criteria are applied?

Wang Hsiou-huai says a host of factors are involved, including national higher education policy, the type and character of the individual university, the needs of industry, social trends and political ideology.

As far as government policy is concerned, in recent years Taiwan has relaxed its political controls over higher education, encouraging the people to continue their education, giving universities more autonomy and transforming the educational system and curricula. The market has supplanted government control. As a result, there is much more flexibility and autonomy with regard to establishing new departments.

Chen Der-hwa, director of the Ministry of Education's Department of Higher Education, believes that the market will continue to play a growing role in higher education in Taiwan.

He explains that in the 1980s if a university wanted to create a new department, it had to first consult with the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and the Council for Economic Planning and Development to see if industry needed graduates of such programs. There was a strong sense of education being a tool that provided useful service to the nation.

In recent years various governmental controls over higher education have been relaxed. In 2001 the government switched to a more hands-off method of controlling only the total number of departments, while allowing each university, so long as it meets certain stipulations on teacher salaries and education facilities, to change its departments, its number of classes and the number of students it enrolls.

Stressing both beauty and power, fashion imaging strives to raise the quality of life. It also demonstrates the competitiveness and economic power of the nation.

Buyers' market

Apart from the effects of the government loosening its control, all universities, facing tremendous competitive pressures, have begun to actively adopt strategies based on the market, society and their customers.

With falling birthrates (which shrink the pool of college-age students) and a concurrent rise in the number of universities, today, even with almost 90% of children attending high school, many universities are facing underenrollment.

In 2005, for instance, the total quota of students for Taiwan's 162 institutions of higher education was 370,481, but only 315,918 were actually enrolled. There were 19 institutions with enrollments at less than half their quota.

Tai Hsiou-hsia, dean of National Chiao Tung University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, says that in recent years higher education in Taiwan has changed from a seller's to a buyer's market. Institutions are pulling out all the stops to attract students as never before. Some are providing generous scholarships. Others are offering dormitories that resemble five-star hotels. And offering unique new programs that are warmly received in the marketplace is the easiest way to pique students' interest and entice them to enroll.

According to Yao Kuo-shan, dean of Mingdao University, which has only been established for five years, the biggest characteristic of the newly established universities is a freedom from traditional constraints when establishing new programs. Furthermore, "market need" is Mingdao's top concern when establishing new departments. Programs in materials science and engineering, digital design, fashion imaging, computer science and engineering, and post-modern agriculture, are all hot in the current market.

When filling out your university program preference sheet, try to remain flexible. Only by staying receptive to change can one keep from falling behind the times.

The university transformed

But the trend toward technical-based departments that stress applied knowledge has also caused some to worry that the universities are becoming merely "institutions of professional development."

According to Wang Hsiou-huai's research, the vast majority (84%) of the new programs are oriented toward training practical skills, including in high-tech areas, management, engineering, design, media, environmental science, education, social work, tourism, and so forth.

Chen Der-hwa of the MOE argues that there is nothing wrong with this trend. He explains that in step with social and industrial change, the university has become an institution for cultivating employable talent. It has adjusted out of necessity. "There was more focus to knowledge in the past, whereas now there are all sorts of branches and sub-branches. It's an inevitable trend."

"Quantitative change has brought about qualitative change," says Tai Hsiou-hsia. Higher education's curricula have been changing. Fields once regarded as non-academic and unsuitable for the university have been absorbed into it, and all manner of new programs have been founded. Meanwhile, the traditional academic programs have had to adjust to reflect students' abilities, interests and career plans, so as not to become outdated and be cast aside.

While people have reservations about universities becoming excessively practice-oriented, paradoxically higher education is still not meeting industry's demand for skilled personnel.

Chen Der-hwa says straight out that although there have been rapid changes in higher education, with the founding of many new departments, connections with society at large have not been made tight enough or fast enough.

"Over the past few years the Ministry of Education has accommodated the trend toward university autonomy, giving individual institutions more flexibility and space," Chen says, "but it has discovered that it hasn't reaped big rewards." He sees the problem as being rooted in the fact that universities are organized around departments. Within any given department, instructors are typically cut from the same cloth. Without an infusion of new blood, even with a name change, the actual content of the program won't differ much from before.

Consequently, the MOE late last year revised the University Act, breaking up the department cages and allowing colleges to play the role of integrator, with cross-college, cross-department, and cross-institute programs. The intent is to enliven curricula that had become ossified.

"In future, students will be enrolled into colleges rather than departments, and will not declare a specialism in their freshman and sophomore years. Degrees will also be awarded according to program rather than department," foresees Chen. "As a result, departments will be completely reshuffled."

The growing numbers of programs in sports, health and leisure cultivate professionals in related fields. Collectively, they also comprise a whole new realm of higher education.

New ways of thinking

With universities going mass market, their image as bastions of the elite has been destroyed. Undergraduate education emphasizes general studies and basic training, and to be truly accomplished academically or professionally one must now ascend to graduate school. University curricula have consequently become more lively and varied.

Yet, do more departments and more thoughtfully designed curricula really satisfy all students' individual needs and allow them to cultivate abilities that they can rely on for a lifetime?

According to a survey by Professor Peng Sen-ming of National Taiwan Normal Univeristy, only about half of the jobs taken by the class of 2003 required a university education. And many students found jobs in fields not directly related to their educations (23.6% were unrelated, 36.2% were partially related, and 40.2% were closely related).

"In different eras people have different life plans; you can't apply a fixed yardstick," says Tai Hsiou-hsia. This is an age of globalization. The world is changing dramatically, and the skills required of students differ greatly from the past. Universities should meet changing needs. A program's birth, death or transformation represents only the outer layers of higher education; the real substance is in designing the coursework.

She points out that the content of university education should not only be aimed at transmitting knowledge and skills; it must even more stress cultivating students' communicative and cooperative skills, their flexibility, independence, creativity, and ability to face uncertainty. In these respects, Taiwan's universities haven't done enough.

To paraphrase the British scholar Michael Gibbons, what people today need is not heavy equipment, but flexibility in their skills and attitudes; the only skill that won't grow outdated is the ability to learn new skills.

Maintaining flexibility and welcoming change shouldn't simply be characteristics that modern universities want to cultivate in their students; they should be paramount considerations in the next wave of founding, eliminating and transforming university programs.

New departments set up in 53 Taiwanese universities, 1995-2003 /Source: Wang Hsiou-huai, associate professor of the Center for Teacher Education, NTU