Current Development and Future Prospects
of Education in Taiwan
Ru-Jer Wang
Vice President, National Academy for Educational Research
Professor, Dept. of Education & Graduate Institute of Educational Policy
and Administration, National Taiwan Normal University
Yueh-Chun Huang
Director, Graduate Institute of Educational Administration and Policy
Development, National Chiayi University
Structure
1
The current development of education in Taiwan
2
The future prospects of education in Taiwan
1. The current development of education in Taiwan
1
Educational expenditure
2
Percentage of the students completing post secondary
education
3
Enrolment rate of higher education
4
Unemployment rates of different educational levels
5
Percentage of the cost of R&D funds accounting in GDP
(1) Educational expenditure
• Percentage of the investment in education: The
highest one was 6.88% in 1993; while the lowest
was 5.39% in 2000.
• After the first time of party alternation in power
between 2000 to 2008, the figures were all below
6%; while after the second time, the figure rose up
to 6.51% in 2009.
6.88%
5.39%
Figure 1 Educational expenditure from 1993- 2009 accounting in GDP
Sources from: Department of Statistics (2010).
(2) Percentage of the students completing post secondary
education
• Nowadays, the educational background of most youngsters
in Taiwan has reached more than high school level.
• The percentage of the students completing post
secondary education in different years: The highest was
89.5% in 2009; whereas the lowest was 73.2% in 2000.
89.5%
73.2%
Figure 2 The percentage of the students age 20-24 who (at least) completing late
secondary educations from 2001-2009.
Sources from: National Statistics, R.O.C. (2010a)
(3) Enrolment rate of higher education
• Higher education in Taiwan has developed rapidly in the past
decades, also changes the traditional views- from elite education to
popularized education.
Table 1. The enrolment rates (general enrolment) of Tertiary Education (age 18-21)
unit: %
Sources from: Department of Statistics (2007a).
Note 1) General enrolment: the number of tertiary students / the number of people at the school age x 100
2) From 2004, the general enrolment rate of tertiary education excludes the students of graduate schools and
training schools.
(4) Unemployment rates of different educational levels
• The unemployment rates are different among
people with different educational backgrounds.
• The unemployment rate of those with the
compulsory education level is comparatively the
lowest (4.88%), that of secondary education
level is 5.63% and the ones with college level is
5.17%.
Table 2. Unemployment in 2010 (divided through educational levels)
Sources from: National Statistics, R.O.C. (2010b).
(5) Percentage of R&D expenditure accounting in GDP
• The figure appears to getting higher from the first time political
parties alternation of power in 2000. The same situation is
also found on the second time in 2008.
Figure 3 The percentage of the cost of all R&D funds accounting in GDP from 2000-2009
Sources from: NSCNT (2010).
As shown above, the educational popularization in Taiwan is obvious
and rises considerably in recent decade, the investment on research
as well. However, the investment on education has decreased for a
long time.
2. The future prospects of education in Taiwan
(1) Primary and secondary education- planning a 12 years citizen
education

Law: Is 12 year citizen education a compulsory education? If so, the
government should enact related laws and provide each student the
same opportunity to attend schools.

Expenditure: Is 12 year citizen education a free education? If so, the
government is responsible for offering free education to each student.

Enrolment: Is 12 year citizen education a free admission education? If
so, there will be no extra exam. Students usually choose schools by their
neighboring residential areas.

School type: Is 12 year citizen education a same-school-type
education? If so, students all enter the same type of school, and
diversified education will no long exist.

Year length (international comparison): Compared to the school year
length in Taiwan(12 years), the following data are different among
countries.
Table4. Countries of 9 year (or above) education policy
Table5. Countries of 10 year (or above) education policy
2. Higher education-popularization vs. decreasing birth rate

The fast expansion of higher education in Taiwan has changed the
traditional view on education. However, the decreasing birth rate becomes
a new problem. The potential number of students will diminish and what’s
the worse, there will be a terrible lack of professionals and industry in
Taiwan may thus confront a huge shock.
decreased over hundred thousand
Figure 4. the number of tertiary school students is under the hypothesis that 96%
graduates from high school all continue to study in university.
Sources from: Department of Statistics (2007b).
The trend of the development of higher education in Taiwan --Facing the decrease of birth rate
The number of faculty with PhD in Taiwan has been
rising over past years, which shows that Taiwan has well
quality teachers.
if Taiwan’s government could set up attractive
educational policies and offer incentives (such as
scholarship, Chinese learning), this will be beneficial for
raising Taiwan’s international status, creating higher
GDP, and improving economic effectiveness.
 Hence,
Table 6. Academic background of university faulty in Taiwan
Sources from: Department of Statistics (2007a).
unit: %
“Part-time learning” & “Credit Accumulated/Transferred
and Register System”
 “Part-time
learning” in higher education not only
increases the number of potential students, but also provides
ample opportunities for young students and adults to interact
with each other. The employment rate of the former will thus
be positively affected.
 Credit
accumulated/transferred and register system:
Opportunity for adult learners should be given;
 Universities should amend their recruitment strategies and
increase a variety of students from different background;
 A cross-school (either national or international) system and its
relevant measures are also required;
 Credit accumulated/transferred and register system in each
lifelong learning institution should be found.
