申論題

          Are Taiwanese university and college students actually learning things that can be put to practical use?
          It’s a question currently on the minds of many education experts. Wide-reaching educational reforms that started a decade ago with the ideal of creating universal higher education have radically transformed Taiwan’s colleges and universities. A degree is no longer a privilege reserved for Taiwan’s intellectual elite but is now freely available. But with this broadening of opportunity, educational standards appear to have eroded significantly.
          Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey says flatly that there are now too many colleges and universities. Including police and military academies, Taiwan is now home to a total of 173 institutions of higher education – 64 public ones and 109 private – which is 101 more than existed in 1991. At the full university level, there are 53 regular and teacher-training institutions and 38 polytechnic universities.
         A large proportion of young people are now enrolled in universities and colleges. Around two decades ago, says Ni Chou-hwa, a section chief with the Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education, around 16% of high school students annually could pass the entrance exam and enter a university. Now, higher education is becoming almost universal. Citing OECD Indicators 2007, Lin Wan-I, a National Taiwan University professor and formerly a minister without portfolio under the Democratic Progressive Party administration, notes that 65% of Taiwan’s 19-year-olds were enrolled in a tertiary institution in 2005, a situation aided by rising household affluence levels in addition to the expansion in the number of colleges. Only South Korea, at 72%, had a higher figure for the same age group, with the United States standing at 49% and Australia at 35%. “Taiwan and Korea really value study,” says Lin. MOE statistics show that in 2007 a total of 230,230 students graduated with an undergraduate degree, 53,470 received a Master’s degree, and 3,106 a doctorate.
          Yet in terms of quality of education, at least as measured by international rankings, Taiwan is not faring as well as its Asian neighbors. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2008, only one Taiwanese university – National Taiwan University – ranked within the top 200 internationally (it came in at 124, a slip from 104th place a year earlier). Taiwan’s other star universities – National Tsing Hua, National Chiao Tung and National Cheng Kung universities – were all excluded. Meanwhile, the University of Hong Kong received a stellar ranking at 26, and three other Hong Kong universities also made it to the top 200. The National University of Singapore was ranked the 30th best university in the world, and Peking University tied with Seoul National University for 50th place. (Source: ‘Cover Story: Grading Taiwan’s Higher Education’, AmCham Taipei, by Jane Rickards)

17. It can be inferred from this passage that ______. (A) most people in Australia countries value study (B) students in American high schools are keen to study (C) there are actually fewer colleges and universities in America than has not been reported (D) the proportion of student’s enrollment in college is seen as a measure of a nation’s economy