International Benchmarking with the Best Universities: Policy and Practice in Mainland China and Taiwan

Ka Ho Moka and Ying Chanb
1. aFaculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: ka-ho.mok@hku.hk
2. bGraduate Institute of Higher Education, Tamkang University, Taiwan
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Abstract
With a strong conviction to enhance their global competitiveness, governments across different parts of the world have tried various means to promote the ranking of their universities in the global university leagues. With a strong determination to do better in such global ranking exercises, universities in mainland China and Taiwan have attempted to restructure their university systems and have searched for new governance strategies in order to make their universities more competitive in the global world. This article critically examines major policies introduced and strategies employed by governments in mainland China and Taiwan in benchmarking their universities internationally with world-class universities.
Keywords:
world-class university, international benchmarking, policy and strategies, academic reflections
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Introduction
The quest for a ‘world-class university’ and the global university rankings have become increasingly prominent agendas affecting the way universities are governed.1 In order to better position universities in the globalized world, many national governments, policy makers and analysts of higher education across different parts of the globe have devoted far more attention, resources and energies to search for new governance and strategies in promoting university research with intention to rank higher in the global university league tables. As Altbach (2007, 3) has rightly suggested, ‘research universities have emerged on the policy agenda in many developing countries, especially larger nations that seek to compare in the global knowledge economy’. It is against the wider policy context outlined above that this article sets out to critically examine how and what major strategies governments in China and Taiwan have adopted in transforming their higher education systems to become globally competitive. More specifically, this article discusses how governments in mainland China and Taiwan have responded by reforming their higher education governance and management styles and introducing new policies to enhance the global competitiveness of their higher education systems. The first part of the article will provide a brief policy context for higher education reforms in China and Taiwan. The second part of the article focuses on major strategies adopted by these Asian governments in internationalizing and international benchmarking their universities with global partners. The third part will focus on how and what major strategies that major universities in these two Chinese societies have employed to better position their universities in the global world.
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The Context for Higher Education Reforms in China and Taiwan
Prior to the reforms in the last two decades, both mainland China and Taiwan used to adopt a highly centralized system in governing their higher education systems because education was employed as an instrument to promote official ideologies and maintain the political influence of the ruling party (Mok, 2000, 2005a). Realizing the centralized governance model is appropriate in running higher education, especially when these two Chinese societies have to confront the increasingly competitive global world, the governments in China and Taiwan have begun to search for new university governance and look for new management strategies to make their systems more responsive and efficient in addressing the ever-changing world. It is against this context that higher education governance in China and Taiwan has been going through processes of decentralization, privatization, mercerization and corporatization, particularly when both the Chinese and the Taiwanese governments are particularly concerned with how to run their higher education systems in a more efficient and effective way (Mok, 2006, 2007). With a strong conviction to promote their international competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy, both governments in China and Taiwan have also adhered to the ideas of neo-liberalism and adopted market-oriented practices and strategies to run their higher education systems in a more efficient and effective manner.
In the last few decades, Taiwan has gone through significant changes resulting from the democratization and economic reforms in the last few decades (Lo and Weng, 2005). Similarly, mainland China has also experienced tremendous social and political transformations since economic reforms were started in the late 1970s (Tang and Holzner, 2007). As a late developer in higher education, the Chinese government has been particularly active in turning a number of its major universities into world-class universities by strengthening their research capacity and postgraduate education (Ngok and Guo, 2007). Likewise, the government in Taiwan has attempted to assert its international status through better positioning of its universities in the global ranking exercises (Chen and Lo, 2007). Realizing the important role of higher education in enhancing global competitiveness, both the Chinese and Taiwan governments have tried to concentrate funding on a selected few universities in order to turn them into leading research/academic institutions which could complete globally (Deem et al., 2008). Having briefly outlined the context for higher education reforms in China and Taiwan, let us now focus on the major university reform strategies.
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University Governance Change and Management Reform
China
Openly recognizing that dependence on the state alone would not meet the pressing demands for higher education, the Chinese government has attempted to diversify educational provision and financing by adopting a policy of decentralization in order to share the financial burden for higher education financing with local governments. As early in 1985, the promulgation of the Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Educational System marked the beginning of diversifying educational services, allowing and encouraging the non-state sector to establish and run educational institutions (Hawkins, 2000; Chan and Ngok, 2001). The Outline for Education Reform and Development in China (Outline) in 1993 clearly stated that the government support non-state actor to run schools (CPCCC, 1993). The retreat of the central government in terms of education financing has created more room for local governments in general and other non-state actors in particular to play an increasingly important role in education provision and financing. Against this context, non-state or people-run (minban) organizations have contributed significantly to meet the growing higher education demands, thereby leading to the emergence of minban (people-run) schools. In 2003, there were 1279 non-state/private higher education institutions (MOE, China, 2006).
To enable the sustainable growth of education, the diversification of financing channels is considered as one of the possible ways to achieve such a policy goal. The central government has decentralized its authorities of education governance to local governments, hence shifting parts of its financial burdens to local governments and non-state sectors/actors. Adopting a ‘user-pay’ principle, students have to pay tuition fee since the late 1980s and thereafter tuition fees and student fees have constituted increasingly important parts of revenue for many higher education institutions. The growth of non-state educational expenditure within 10 years (from 333 million yuan in 1993 to 17 billion yuan in 2002) has clearly indicated such trends. In terms of provision, minbaninstitutions have now captured almost 8.3% of regular higher education and adult learning.2 Since there is a growing demand for higher education in mainland China, mobilizing various kinds of social investment through the diversification of educational provision and funding is becoming more popular.
Moreover, the changes in human resource management practices have also significantly impacted on higher education governance and management in China. In the past, the employment practices in China were characterized by centralized labour allocation, resulting in life tenure and low labour mobility. The removal of this ‘iron rice bowl employment system’ has created more flexibility in the labour market. Employers hence become an important stakeholder of higher education and students would tend to choose those subjects with high market demand. Since student choices of universities and academic programmes would certainly affect the student intakes for any academic institutions, higher education institutions (especially for minban institutions) are confronted with the rise of ‘consumerism’ and the challenges resulting from the commodification/commercialization of higher education (Ngok, 2002). The growing influence of the market forces has inevitably intensified inter-university competition. Owing to the opening of the labour market, higher education institutions have to compete for quality teaching staff as well as professors with good reputation. Similarly, with the emergence of internal market in student admissions and government grants, universities are now under pressure to compete for quality students and government funding in order to maintain their national ranking and global competitiveness.
Taiwan
Since the late 1980s, the number of private higher education institutions in Taiwan has increased tremendously, whereas the number of public institutions has grown steadily for the last decade. The official statistics indicates that the private higher education sector has grown sevenfold since the 1950s in Taiwan (MOE, Taiwan, 2001). As stipulated in the Overall Proposal on Education in 1994 and the White Paper for University Education in 2001, the Taiwan government openly recognized the importance of the private sector in providing higher education (Council on Education Reform, Executive Yuan, 1995a, 1995b; MOE, Taiwan, 2001). In 1999, among 88 universities and colleges, 46 were private institutions, whereas 42 were public institutions (Lo and Tai, 2003, Table 8.3). Since then, the provision of the private sector has exceeded that of the public sector in higher education. The significant increase in private higher education in Taiwan clearly shows the changing role of the Taiwanese state has transformed from a higher education ‘provider’ to become a ‘facilitator’ (Lo and Tai, 2003). Other than provision, the private sector has also expanded its role in university administration and curriculum design. For university administration, the Private Education Institutes Law and Implementation Plan of Cooperation between Social Organizations and Educational Institutes have granted autonomy to private institutions, particularly in school management, by strengthening the role and authorities of the directors' board. For curriculum design, the participation of the private sector exists in the form of cooperation between academia and industry. Given the growing globalization impact, Taiwan has been aware of the importance of maintaining an adequate supply of quality manpower in the knowledge-based economy era; the Taiwan government has therefore tried various ways to strengthen the links between university education and the labour market (MOE, Taiwan, 2003a). To ensure that university graduates meet the market's needs, the MOE launched a programme called Last Mile Plan, whereby encourages higher education institutions to foster closer connections with industry. With the same scheme in place, employers have the opportunity to engage with academics from universities in the design of curricula and courses in order to ensure what the students learn would cater for the labour market needs (Lu, 2004, 6–7).
Prior to 1994, the government was the primary funding source of all national universities. Similar to China, the Taiwan government also tried to diversify financing channels to finance its higher education system by replacing the Public Budget System with the new University Fund System. Under the new system, the national universities are allowed to keep the surplus, hence giving incentives for the universities to diversify their sources of income through actively applying research grants. Furthermore, the MOE allows 30% of flexibility on public universities' tuition charges. With the introduction of these measures, the Taiwan government hopes to make the national universities more financially independent in the longer term. Nowadays, tuition fees and research grants have contributed a more significant proportion to the national universities' revenue. In addition, the government once attempted to turn the status of all national universities into ‘administrative legal bodies’ by introducing university incorporation plans with intention to give national universities a high degree of flexibility and autonomy in their operation and development through empowering them to enjoy more fiscal autonomy and flexibilities in generating revenues (MOE, Taiwan, 2001, 2003b; Lo and Tai, 2003). To encourage private universities to compete with national universities on the same ground, the Taiwan government has adopted a new funding policy in the higher education sector by cutting about 20–25% of the state financial resources originally attributed to national universities to offer financial support to private universities based upon a merit and competitive basis. In line with this policy, 20% of the regular income of the private universities has been supported by the MOE since the 1999–2000 academic year (MOE, Taiwan, 2001). The implementation of this funding policy has held private universities accountable to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the general public would expect more from private universities to perform better when public money is used to support their activities (Lo and Tai, 2003, 147). In addition, the government also slightly loosened the restrictions on tuition fees by adopting the ‘user-pay’ principle in order to facilitate universities to get additional revenues to finance their academic programmes and research initiatives (Mok and Lo, 2002). All these measures aim to correct the previous imbalance of funding and promote a competitive culture between public and private higher education institutions for fostering better performance.
In the last few years, public universities in Taiwan have been experiencing significant governance and management changes. In line with the spirit and practices of corporatization and incorporation, the universities and colleges have been granted more autonomy by relaxing certain legal restrictions on university governance. The revision of the University Law in 2005 is a good example of the deregulation in higher education governance. Regarding personnel management, the appointment of university presidents had to go through two stages (one university level and one MOE level) in the past. Nonetheless, the newly revised University Law stipulates that presidents of national universities are appointed by a selection committee that consists of members from the universities, external parties and officials of MOE (Article 8), indicating a simplification of the appointment procedures. In addition, the restrictions on nationality have been removed. Notionally, universities are allowed to appoint overseas scholars to be presidents and other senior positions are allowed to be filled by top talents through worldwide search (see Articles 8 and 13). In short, such a legal amendment has facilitated universities to recruit academic leaders through worldwide search.
Furthermore, universities are given more autonomy in finance. Currently, terms and conditions of university staff are standardized. According to Article 19 of the University Law, ‘universities may add rights and obligations of teachers in the academic rules and formulate separate stipulations for the suspension or refusal of reengagement of teachers upon requirements of academic research and development, which shall be implemented and provided in the contracts after being approved by the academic affairs meeting’. This means that universities have more flexibility to adjust the terms and conditions, and therefore the structure of the salary of university staff can become more flexible and performance based in the future. In other words, universities can use the salary adjustment as a way to reward or punish the staff. The revised University Law also allows universities to develop a more flexible organizational structure. Article 6, for example, allows universities to establish inter-institutional systems and research centre. It authorizes the universities themselves to set the regulations on the organization and operation of the inter-institutional institutes. Moreover, Article 11 provides universities with the autonomy to establish their colleges or independent graduate schools, while colleges can establish their departments or graduate schools. Universities are also authorized to offer inter-department, inter-institute or inter-institutional qualifications. All these measures show an important step towards university autonomy as well as inter-institutional collaboration and integration. Putting the above changes into perspective, we can see that the revised University Law has indeed changed the university governance from a ‘centralized’ to a more ‘decentralized’ and ‘corporate’ model in Taiwan.
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Questing for the ‘World-Class Status’: Government Responses and Policy Change
China
Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has tactically prioritized education as one of key items in its policy agenda of national development. According to Zheng and Zhao (2004), the economic reform and open door policy started since the late 1970s have provided China a comparatively strong base in terms of finance and technology for further development of higher education (Zheng and Zhao, 2004). Alongside with the mega trend of integration with the global community, China has actively engaged in various sorts of international organizations, attempting to be involved in more international collaboration and exchange. Fostering more international exchange and cooperation, the Chinese government has devised various means to promote the internationalization of higher education in order to benchmark with the best universities overseas (Yang, 2002). It is recognized that the ultimate goal of internationalization of higher education is to enhance the quality of higher education to the world standard; an increasing number of Chinese academics, administrators and specialists has set off to overseas exchange and academic visits.
Realizing the reality that higher education in China had missed opportunities for development in the last few decades, not many universities in China mainland are able to complete globally at the current state. With a strong conviction to benchmark with the global university league, the Chinese government is determined to concentrate its limited resources to identify a few top universities for boosting their research profile and academic standard. To achieve this goal, the Chinese government introduced two major policies in the quest for world-class universities, namely Project 211 and Project 985, in the pursuit of world-class universities in the late 1990s (Mok, 2005a; Mohrman et al., 2008). Project 211 is the Chinese government's endeavour to enhance the quality of education and research in China's higher education since the 1990s. Project 211, which was first mentioned in the Outline of 1993, was formally promulgated in 1995 by the State Education Commission (SEC, now the Ministry of Education, MOE). It primarily aimed at strengthening about 100 higher education institutions and key disciplinary areas as a national priority for the 21st century. Generally speaking, Project 211 consists of three major components:
1. Improving the overall institutional capacity by expanding the number of scholars and teaching with those who have high academic attainments and prestige, as well as enhancing the infrastructure and facilities indispensable for teaching and research.
2. Developing key disciplines which are considered to be necessary to social and economic development, scientific and technological advancement, and national defence.
3. Strengthening the networking of and collaboration between higher education institutions through the development of the Chinese Education and Research Network (CERNET), the Library and Documentation Support System (LDSS) and the Modern Equipment and Facilities Sharing System (MEFSS).
More specifically, there are three tasks in Project 211. Firstly, top priority was given to intensively finance Peking University and Tsinghua University in order to facilitate these two universities into approaching a higher level of world standard and eventually become world-class institutions. Secondly, through provision of additional funding, 25 key universities were selected for upgrading to their quality of teaching and research activities in key disciplines. Thirdly, further efforts would be made to enhance around 300 key disciplines in different institutions (MOE, China, 2005). After introducing the 211 Project, the Chinese government invested around 10.9 billion yuanduring the period of 1996–2000 (National Planning Commission et al., 2005). In terms of achievements, although only less than 10% of higher education institutions benefited from the Project, these universities offered a high percentage of student enrollments, and captured most of the research funding and equipment in the country. The implementation of the Project has also brought a significant growth in enrollment rate at various levels (i.e., undergraduate: 61%; master's degree: 108%; doctoral degree: 101%), while the number of teachers with doctoral degrees and publications has significantly increased by 109% and 94%, respectively, during the same period (National Planning Commission et al., 2005). These figures have indicated that Project 211, as the first key national initiative in promoting universities with world-class standard, has contributed significantly to the quality enhancement of higher education in China.
The promulgation of Project 985 marked a second step of quality enhancement of higher education in China. In 1998, the former President Jiang Zemin made a speech on the 100th anniversary of Peking University, in which he addressed the need of establishing world-class universities in China. The MOE thereby worked out the Action Plan of Education Promotion for the 21st Century (Action Plan), which stresses that, within the first two decade of the 21st century, some Chinese universities and key areas of study shall reach a world-class level and be internationally recognized. Such measures were put together as Project 985. At the early stage of implementing Project 985, the two top universities in China, Peking University and Tsinghua University, were again selected to be intensively funded by the central authority. In accordance with the Action Plan, the two universities would be allocated a special budget of 1.8 billion yuan for enhancing their teaching and research activities. In 1999, seven more universities were selected by the MOE to join in the collaborative projects with local authorities. Subsequently, more and more institutions have been encouraged and supported to enhance their quality in research and teaching with the goal to become world-class or world-renown universities. By 2003, universities listed in Project 985 have increased to 34 institutions (Huang, 2005). Project 985 has started its further stage (2004–2007) since 2004, which focused on the improvement of university management and evaluation system. With emphasis on building a stronger team of management as well as teaching through worldwide recruitment, Project 985 attempts to enhance the effectiveness of the existing laboratories, research centres and facilities through restructuring and establishing a coordinating mechanism. Finally, the Project proposes to strengthen international cooperation among institutions through various exchange activities (MOE and MOF, 2005).
Taiwan
Similarly to China, the Taiwan government has realized that globalization has intensified the competition among higher education institutions in a worldwide sense. After a careful assessment, the Taiwan government recognizes that overseas competition, especially competition from mainland China, would become a major challenge to Taiwan's universities because of the technological advancement and rapid flow of human capital in the global age (Huang, 2001, 171–73; Lu, 2002). After Taiwan's accession to the World Trade Organization, overseas universities are allowed to expand their recruitment of Taiwan's students through educational agencies, distance learning, and two-track or dual-credit systems. In order to enhance the global competitiveness of universities in Taiwan against the highly competitive world, the Taiwan government began to call for the pursuit of academic excellence of universities in the late 1990s (Lo and Weng, 2005).
According to Executive Yuan's objectives set out in 2004, the Taiwan government is particularly keen to have at least one local university ranked among the top 100 universities within the next decade, and at least 15 key departments or cross-university research centres will become the top in Asia within the next 5 years (Lu, 2004, 9). In order to improve the quality of university standards, pursuing academic excellence and focusing universities' efforts on developing a selected few areas have become the policies adopted by the government to boost the research profile of universities in Taiwan. In 1998, the MOE and the National Science Council (NSC) jointly launched the Programme for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities (Academic Excellence Programme), primarily aimed at improving universities' infrastructure and invigorating research (MOE, Taiwan, 2000). This Programme supports four research fields, including humanities and social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and applied sciences. Each research field has a focus of investigation:
1. For humanities and social sciences, the Academic Excellence Programme requests that research projects utilize local research materials for arguing against or elaborating theories from the West.
2. For life sciences, the Academic Excellence Programme stresses the importance of human physiology and development of biotechnology.
3. For natural sciences, the Academic Excellence Programme focuses on atmospheric sciences, materials sciences and earth sciences and expects these disciplines to be recognized internationally as of leading status.
4. For engineering and applied sciences, the Academic Excellence Programme highlights the importance of the applied studies of networking technologies, wireless communication technologies, and optics and photonics (MOE, Taiwan, 2000).
In addition, the MOE and NSC also formed a panel, consisting of eminent local and overseas academics to charge with selecting research projects for support by the programme. In the first round of the Academic Excellence Programme, a total of 261 research project applications were submitted. After rigorous review, a total amount of NT$ 4.3 billion were allocated to fund 19 projects and three of which were offered conditionally. The first round of the Programme was completed in 2004. To further develop a high-quality research culture in Taiwan, the second round of the Programme was launched in 2000 until 2006. There were 148 research project applications in this round and 12 projects were granted with a total amount of NT$ 2.1 billion. With a rigorous selection process in place, only 6.13% of research project applications were selected to be supported in the first round of the programme (excluding the three conditional offers), while 8.1% of applications were funded in the second round. The funded rate of humanities and social sciences projects was even lower (i.e., 15.55% for the first round and 3.29% for the second round). Most of the funding went to public institutions, while only two research projects jointly submitted by public and private institutions were funded (MOE, Taiwan, 2003a). After reviewing the various rounds of implementation, the government considers the Academic Excellence Programme successful in allowing effective integration of resources to foster cooperation and exchange between outstanding institutions and talented researchers, and boosting research capacity (NSC, 2005). Hence, the Taiwan government has become even committed to invest in key research areas in order to better place universities of Taiwan in the global map.
In addition to the Academic Excellence Programme discussed above, another initiative entitled the Programme for Improving University Fundamental Education (Fundamental Education Programme) under the Academic Excellence Programme has been implemented since 2001 to enhance the level of university's foundation and general studies (Lu, 2004, 8). Applications for this programme would be divided into five groups, namely humanities and social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences, engineering and applied sciences, and institutional integration. In the first round of the Fundamental Education Programme, 112 institutions submitted 432 applications, of which 192 projects from 92 institutions were selected to be funded. In terms of funding, 55.9% of the fund was granted to public institutions, while 44.1% of the fund was allocated to private institutions (MOE, Taiwan, 2004). The MOE has planned to allocate NT$ 1.8 billion for the second round of the programme. When putting the above discussion together, we can easily find that both the governments in China mainland and Taiwan have recognized the importance to enhance the global competitiveness of their universities and various reform strategies have been introduced to enable their universities to rank higher in the global ranking exercises.
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Questing for the ‘World-Class Status’: University Responses and Coping Strategies
China
In addition to the strategies adopted by these two Asian governments in the quest for world-class universities, higher education institutions in both societies are becoming increasingly keen in internationalizing their teaching and research programmes. In the last few years, the principal author of this article, Ka Ho Mok, has been involved in various kinds of academic exchange and international advisory work for selected higher education institutions in China mainland and Taiwan. Being invited as one of the international consultants, the principal author of this paper got a number of opportunities to interact with colleagues from Zhejiang University, ranked in the Top Three in China's university league. With a strong conviction to develop Zhejiang University as one of the leading universities in the world, the senior management of Zhejiang University has tried different strategies to better position the University in the global ranking exercise. For example, Zhejiang University has joined the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a global research network to promote international research collaboration. In 2007, the College of Education of Zhejiang University participated in the ‘Ideas and Universities’ virtual seminar series organized by the WUN; faculty members and students actively participated in the seminar series despite the fact that all seminars were conducted in late evening from either 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm because of the time difference between partnering institutions in the USA and the UK (WUN, 2007). Similarly, Nanjing University has also joined the WUN and also sent delegates from China to participate and present at the WUN conference organized in London in November 2007 in order to make the University more visible in the international academic community (WUN, 2007). Enhancing the international outlook of their faculty members, both Zhejiang University and Nanjing University have sent their faculty members for overseas academic exchanges by capitalizing the collaborative projects associated with WUN.
In order to benchmark with global universities, the senior management of Zhejiang University has set up an international advisory committee to advise the President how to better position the University in the global ranking exercise. The principal author of this article was appointed as one of these members, having chances to visit the University to interact with colleagues from different ranks to discuss how to enhance the University's ranking in the global university leagues. By inviting distinguished professors to join the international advisory committee, coupled with partnering with top universities overseas in co-organizing international conferences, the senior management of Zhejiang University strongly believes it would help promote the University as not only a leading university in mainland China but also a world renowned university. Similarly, the College of Government and Public Affairs at Zhongshan University in Gunagzhou, China, have been actively attempting to raise the international research profile in the last few years. The College has proactively collaborated with overseas institutions in co-organizing international conferences and symposia to promote its areas of research excellence. Most recently, the College has launched a new Social Welfare and Social Policy Research Institute to map out medium and long term of research development. After interviewing Professor King Lun Ngok, Director of the Research Institute, we realize how keen Zhongshan University is in establishing the designated research area as nationally and internationally recognized area of research excellence since the University administration has no ceiling cap for research investment in making the newly launched centre a major success in the near future (Interview with Ngok, May 2008). Being a Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol, Professor Ngok has attempted to develop closer links between the University of Bristol and Zhongshan University. According to Ngok, internationalization is one of the major drives for promoting Zhongshan University as a leading university in China. In its launch conference, Ngok invited the very top and prominent professors not only from China mainland but also from outside to raise the profile of the new research institute (Interview with Ngok, May 2008).
These examples are not unique to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Zhongshan University in Guangzhou; universities from Beijing and Shanghai are also very keen to strengthen their research and education programmes through partnering the best in the world. For instance, Social Development and Public Policy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University (BNU) is particularly keen to establish an international research collaboration with leading academic institutions overseas by setting a joint-research centre in public policy research. The Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong invited a delegation from BNU to Hong Kong to discuss international research collaboration, with particular focus on policy research. Throughout the process of discussion, we were hugely impressed by the strong determination and resourceful allocation of research grant in supporting such a research initiative. Mapping out the strategic research direction, the senior management of BNU has no financial difficulty to invest in such a research development project (Field Observation, October 2007). Similarly, College of Social Development and Social Policy at Fudan University has launched its international programme taught in English on subject matters related to social policy and social work. Partnering with the University of Hong Kong, Fudan University has developed joint-academic programme in Social Work profession. During the principal author's recent visit to this College at Fudan, he learned from the Associate Dean of the College that Fudan University is particularly keen to engage in deep collaboration with overseas institutions by launching joint programmes (Field Observation, March 2008). All in all, the examples outlined above have clearly demonstrated the strong determination of universities in China to reach out to the international academic community by internationalizing their research and teaching programmes and international benchmarking with the very best in order to excel themselves to be part of the selected few.
Taiwan
Similar to the vision and strategies adopted by major universities in China mainland, higher education institutions in Taiwan have been very keen to internationalize their teaching and research programmes. When the principal author of this article was serving as the Founding Director of the Centre of East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol from 2005 to 2007, he received many delegates from China and Taiwan for academic visits and exchange. Realizing the importance of internationalization of higher education curricula in China and Taiwan, the Centre of East Asian Studies at Bristol University has co-organized international summer schools with institutions from China and Taiwan in order to provide a platform engaging Asian students in appreciating cross-cultural studies in the UK. The College of Humanities of National Chi Nan University (NCNU) is particularly keen to send students to the Bristol summer school. With special financial support offered by the College of Humanities at NCNU, more students from Taiwan could enjoy experiential learning in the UK (CEAS, 2006, 2007). The Department of Social Work at National Taiwan University (NTU) has also been actively promoting international placement to enhance students' international outlook and enrich their overseas learning experiences. Most recently, the principal author of this article has been appointed by the President of NTU as one of the panel members of the International Advisory team to review the academic and research programmes offered by NTU. During his recent academic visit to NTU, the principal author got the chance to meet the senior management, faculty members and students of NTU. Through reviewing the Department of Social Work in terms of its strategic vision and development strategies, student and staff feedback on research and learning experiences, as well as its facilities, the author got to know how keen the department has been in terms of the internationalization agenda. Aligning with the vision and mission of the university and the faculty in internationalization, the department has made concerted efforts to engage with overseas leading universities in co-organizing international conferences, joint-research projects and other overseas internship/placement. Professor Lillian Wang, Head of the Social Work Department at NTU, openly told the panel members that the Department is serious benchmarking with top universities in Hong Kong, the USA and the UK. In the last five years, the department has engaged in co-organizing international symposia or conferences with overseas partners, sending out staff and students for international exchange and inviting speakers all over the world to give seminars at NTU (Field observation, June 2008).
Being a panel member of the review team and a faculty associate dean from the University of Hong Kong, the principal author has engaged in establishing deep collaboration with NTU. In June 2008, for instance, a delegation from NTU visited HKU to sign an agreement for international collaboration and exchange (Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU, June 2008). During his recent visit to NTU, Professor Yung-Mau Chao, Dean of the College of Social Sciences, actively explored with the principal author for international collaboration in terms of co-organizing conferences and joint-publications. Having the commitment in internationalizing the research profile of its colleagues, Professor Chao has agreed to invest more in promoting research scholarship by partnering with HKU for contemporary China research, a strategic research area designated by NTU (Field observation, December 2007). Like the NTU, the President of Tamkang University is also keen to deepen the international collaboration with overseas institutions. In 2005, a delegation led by the President of Tamkang University went to visit the University of Bristol in the UK. Serving as a coordinator for the academic visit and the former Founding Director of Centre of East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol, the delegation was well received by the Dean and Vice-Chancellor of the University. During his term at the University of Bristol, the principal author received many invitations to speak at various international conferences organized by universities in Taiwan. During his visits to various university campuses, it was apparent that one of the major areas concerning the development of international research collaboration was academic exchanges of both staff and students. For instance, Asia University, a newly founded university in the middle of Taiwan, had sent students to the international summer school at the University of Bristol; Tamkang University, to give another example, is particularly keen to deepen its relationship with the University of Hong Kong and Yonsei University in South Korea by setting up a ‘Three Campus Comparative East Asian Studies Programme’ for student exchange.
Similar to the role differentiation exercise conducted among universities in Hong Kong (Mok, 2005b), the Taiwan government is keen to develop a proper division of labour among universities on the island-state. It is in this context that there has been a heated debate whether to stratify the university system of Taiwan into different clusters by developing a better role differentiation among more than hundreds of universities (Li, 2008). In recent years, the MOE in Taiwan has conducted various kinds of academic reviews to promote universities to perform. In order to better position universities of Taiwan in the global ranking exercise, a ‘Forum on Taiwan Higher Education’ was organized in 2007; distinguished leaders and professors were invited to address the issues related to development plan for world-class universities and research centres of excellence. During the Forum, speakers critically examined the major challenges confronting the higher education sector in Taiwan, debating and discussing ways to promote excellent performance of universities in Taiwan (A Strategic Network Promoting for University Excellence, 2008). Having interviewed Professor Ching-Shan Wu, Executive Director of Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan, the principal author of this article realizes the pressures felt by academics and higher education institutions in benchmarking with the international standard by publishing in top-tiered internationally refereed journals and peer-reviewed venues (Interview with Wu, May 2008). After close scrutiny of the international publications in SSCI, SCI and EI venues, Wu believes academics in Taiwan are lagging behind its international counterparts, hence proposing more attention should be given to internationalize research outputs especially in the intensified competitive research environment (Wu, 2008). Having been involved in university ranking and university evaluation research in the last few years, Professor Angela Hou shared with the authors that academics and higher education institutions are becoming increasingly concerned with the ranking exercises (Interview with Hou, May 2008). Despite the controversy over the accuracy of the university ranking, university presidents and deans are particularly keen to establish international links with top universities overseas. All the examples outlined above have clearly shown how universities in Taiwan have responded proactively to the quest for world-class university status.
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Conclusion
This article has critically examined policies and strategies adopted by the governments in China mainland and Taiwan in response to the growing pressures to internationalize and internal benchmark universities with the very best across different parts of the globe. Despite the controversial debates over the definitions of ‘world-class university’, both the governments in China and Taiwan have adopted a more pragmatic approach to address the issue. By concentrating resources on a selected few, these governments believe they would be able to boost some universities to climb higher in the global university leagues. Although there are heated debates among academics in China and Taiwan, universities in these two Chinese societies are far more instrumental by adopting different strategies discussed above to benchmark with the best in the world (Chen and Lo, 2007; Ngok and Guo, 2007). Perhaps what has been happening in the university campuses in these two societies might reveal the ‘late developer mentality’. By working extremely hard to rank higher in the global league tables, universities in China and Taiwan would consider it is the only alternative to assert their global status through various internationalization strategies. Such a ‘pragmatic instrumentalism’ has unquestionably overshadowed the academia in these Chinese societies. Deeper and critical reflections are really needed during the on-going ‘world-class university’ movement in Asia.
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Notes
1 The authors of this article want to express their gratitude to the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for offering research grant in support of the research project entitled ‘A Comparative Study of Changing University Governance in China and Taiwan’. Materials reported and discussed in this article primarily base upon the intensive policy analysis, documentary analysis, literature research and field research conducted in China mainland and Taiwan from 2006 to 2008.
2 In 2003, there were 2,110 regular and adult HEIs in China, among which 175 are ‘people-run’. But apart from them, 1,104 of non-state run institutions are categorized as ‘other people-run higher education institution (qita minban gaodeng jiaoyu jiguo)’.
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Dilemmas of Education Reform in Taiwan: Internationalization or Localization?

Shen-Keng Yang, Ph.D.
Professor
Graduate Institute of Education

Paper presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society, Washington D. C., USA, March 13-17,2001

I. INTRODUCTION
Education without broad, high-level and clear cultural consciousness, as Ed. Spranger (1920:181) argues, would remain a limited craft. The history of education must also be history of culture. The structure of education reflects the cultural consciousness and codes prevailing in the historical situation in which the education take place. Education reform, as restructuration of education, is linked thus tightly to the cultural transformation.
The development of modern education system in western Europe since Enlightenment constitutes a chain of modernization. Modernization is characterized by Max Weber (1970:155) as a continuous process of rationalization, intellectualization, and above all a process of demystification of the world. The global diffusion of western rationality is thus conductive to the promotion of order and control and the achievement of enhanced interconnectedness of the world in a unified system. Modern education system, as product of the western modernization, has provided impetus that reinforced effective rational control of the world. The western model of rationalization is thus universalized as a highly institutionalized quasi world polity, which attempts to transcend particular cultural identities in favour of a universal identity (A. Benjamin, 1989:321)
As western modernity has achieved global proportions, the race for development in non-western countries feeds back and reinforces the compulsive attempt to "keep up", in a universal process of mimicry (S. Latouche, 1989:69). The theories, models, and concepts derived from western experiences are justifiably universalized. The establishment of modern education in many non-western countries was one chain of such a universal process of mimicry. Typical example was the education reform in Japan after Meiji Restoration of 1868. Under the new Meiji regime it was the Samurai reformers and the enlightened bureaucracy who launched an intensive programme of modernization which drew on and adapted western principles to the Japanese context. Education reform had played a major role to furnish the new bureaucratic elite so vital to the modernizing process. As A. Green (1997:38-39) notes, Japan provided the first example of universal process of modernization through education drawing on western influences.
The process of modernization in the western world since the Enlightenment reached its zenith in the last few decades as the whole world was virtually constructed as an electronic, universal, timeless and technical global system. Western technocratic rationality has brought the supreme domination of the principles of cultural and social construction, such as rationality, order, efficiency and unity to such an extreme that postmodern decentralism, asetheticism pluralism have been disseminated in response to modern logocentrism, Eurocentrism and totalitarianism. In the wake of postmodern criticism against the Eurocentric, hegemonic tendencies of modern science and technology, there arises also in many areas in the world a cultural consciousness of insurrection of subjugated knowledge against western domination in educational theory and practice. As V. Masemann (1990:1848-1857) argues, indigenous knowledge forms in the areas of world that are not "successfully" industrialized are once again seen valid forms of knowledge. Education reform project based on western-oriented rationalistic logic should not be imposed on the non-western world. Indigenous knowledges, values have been taken into serious accounts in implementing education reform in many parts of the world.
As part of the closely interconnected global system resulted from western rationalistic logic, Taiwan can not escape the western influences in the educational innovation. Theory of human capital and theory of modernization played vital role in Taiwan education policy implementation in 1960s, evidently influenced by western rationalistic logic of efficiency. However, in the wake of postmodern criticism against Eurocentric rationalism, Taiwan has cherished local or indigenous languages, values and forms of knowledge in the recent education reform. In search for her own cultural identity through education, Taiwan has been confronted with the problems caused not only by the global trends of internationalization, but also by her specific historical fate: under Japanese colonialism for 50 years and afterwards under the Martial Law control of Sino-centric hegemonic government from 1949 to 1987. It is therefore essential to give an historical analysis before proceeding to discuss the current issues of education reform in Taiwan.

II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Taiwan was ceded to Japan, as China (Ching Dynasty) was defeated by Japanese military invasion in 1895. The Japanese Government-General of Formosa in Taiwan deemed education the best and surest way to bring the people of the newly aquired territory under the Imperial control and to impart to them the national characteristic of the ruling race (Department of Educational Affairs of Government-General of Formosa, 1916:4).To meet the demand of so called " national characteristic education ", the Office for the Department of Educational Affairs was opened in the June, 1895. Japanese Language Schools with attached Normal School Departments were founded in different places in Taiwan for promoting Imperial colonial education. People were encouraged to change their names from Chinese into Japanese with substantial material and " honourable " rewards.
After the restoration of Taiwan to China in 1945, the urgent task of Taiwan authority was to exterminate the iniquitous effects of Japanese colonialism on Taiwan and to set up new national identity. In the National Meeting of Post-war Education held in September 1945, " partriotization " (tsu kuo hwa) was proposed as main educational policy for the government of Taiwan. The so-called " patriotization " is actually " Chinization ". Under the " partriotization " policy, " education for nationalism " and " Chinese culture education " were specifically emphasized and persistently launched. Concrete measures included the prohibition of circulation of Japanese books and the alternation of Japanese appellation of districts, streets and schools etc. to get rid of the influence of Japanese culture. Towards the cultivation of the unified Chinese consciousness, strict strategies for unification of national language were adopted. The strategies included the edition of unified official school textbooks, prohibition of the use of Taiwanese dialects in schools, and limitation of performance of local and indigenous arts on mass communication network etc. In order to cultivate competent teacher for unified national language and national culture, " Phonetics of Chinese Language " and " Four Books ( Four Chinese Ancient Classics )" were instituted as required courses in teacher education curriculum.
The Grand-China-oriented nationalism had been much more emphasized since the government of the Republic of China moved its site to Taiwan after the military defeat in 1949. The new Chinese School System revised in 1922 had been adopted also in Taiwan since Post-war educational reconstruction.
Paradoxically enough, nationalism based on the Chinese culture and economic rationalism based on western efficiency logic had been combined in education policy making since 1949. On the one hand, the eminent danger of military invasion and internal subversion form the Communist China made it urgent need to form a solid spiritual national defence forces, of which teacher education was thought to be one of the most important. Teacher training institutions were established exclusively by government and limited to public institutions. Cultural nationalism with strong China-orientation was cherished in the education. On the other hand, western efficiency logic of capitalism was also urgently needed in Taiwan for developing industry and foreign trade in order to survive herself in the highly competitive international jungle. Theory of human capital, theory of modernization and competency-based education had been specifically underscored in the education policy since 1960s with a view to promoting economic development through effective educational implementation.
Since 1980s high-tech industries had been developing at very rapid pace. The rapid economic growth and political stability in recent years has given the government the confidence that martial law was no longer necessary to keep national security and it was lifted on July 15, 1987. Democratization, pluralism and liberalization have hence been sought for in every socio-cultural sphere. Reform in education has been crying out for meeting the demand of the changing social reality. The government in Taiwan on its part has also been championing education reform with great effort.

III. RECENT EDUCATION REFORM
Education reform has been becoming much more enormous social, political and moral concern in such a turning age of technological, economical and socio-cultural changes bringing challenges to the operation of education. The world wide general pessimistic tone of inability of education to cope with the emerging social problems has pushed many countries to take measures of educational reform. The focus of reform efforts all around the world seems to have been changing from restructuring public education in 1980s to raising national educational standards with a view to strengthening international competitiveness in 1990s (cf. Shen-Keng Yang, 1998; Shen-Keng Yang, 2000; E. H. Berman, 1996).
Not going against the worldwide current, Taiwan has also embarked on a continuous programme of educational reform. In 1983 a Research Group for the Reform of School System (學制改革研究小組) was built by Ministry of Education to investigate the feasible strategies for reorganizing school system. However, only very few of the proposals by the Research Group have been put into practice. Four years latter, the Martial Law was lifted. Democratization, pluralism and liberalization have been sought for in every socio-cultural sphere. Reform in education has been crying out for meeting the demand of the changing social reality. Since the early 1990s a popular sense of educational crisis has been resulting in the feeling that the system must undertake major changes. It was under these circumstances calling for drastic action that led to the premier's approval for the establishment of a cabinet-level ad hoc Council on Education Reform (教育改革審議委員會) in September 1994. The thirty-one Council Members, under the chairmanship of Professor Lee Yuan-Tze, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, were assigned the task of studying the feasible strategies for restructuring educational system to meet the new demand of the coming century. After two-year study, the Council published the General Consultation Report for Education Reform (教育改革總諮議報告書) on December 2, 1996.(Council on Education Reform, 1996). To implement the reform proposals, the Executive Yuan set up an inter-ministrial Commission for Promoting Education Reform (教育改革推動委員會) in January, 1997, under the coordination of former Vice-premier Liu Chao-Hsuan. Furthermore, in his Inaugural Address President Chen Shui-Bian reaffirmed the determination of New Government to launch on overall education reform in the Republic of China on Taiwan: "We will seek a consensus among the ruling and opposite parties, academics and public to carry on with educational reforms and build a healthy, proactive, lively and innovative education system, which will allow Taiwan to cultivate first-class, outstanding talents amid the fierce international competition. We let Taiwan move gradually toward a "learning organization" and a " knowledge-based society". We will also encourage people to take up life-long learning to fully develop their potential."
In response to the said reform proposals and reform ideas, the central government and many local governments in Taiwan on their part also took many initiatives and set up co-coordinated effort in planning and promoting reforms. Several laws, decrees and working guidelines have been enacted or revised as part of the overall educational innovation.

FROM IDEAS TO MANDATES
The focus of reform concern of the Research Group for the Reform of School System in 1983 was, as indicated earlier in this paper, the reorganization of educational system. However, the new social demands caused by the technological, economic and cultural changes during the turn of the new millennium make it imperative to improve extensively and penetratively the whole quality of education in Taiwan. Thus the mottos interwoven in the General Consultation Report for education Reform are deregulating governmental control over education and exempting education from unnecessary constraints, safeguiding the children's and students' learning rights, protecting the parents' choice right of education patterns and paths for their immature children and respect for the teachers' professional autonomy.
Under the guideline of these mottos, the Council on Education Reform set up the following education reform goals:
1.Modernizing educational processes and ends;
2.Meeting individual as well as social needs;
3.Establishing life-long learning society;
4.Promoting extensive and penetrative innovation of educational system.
To actualize these goals, totally thirty-two recommendations including reforming elementary, secondary and higher education, improving and diversifying channels of admission to higher level schools and universities and facilitating life-long learning were suggested to bring about fundamental changes of education in Taiwan.
To implement the reform proposals, an inter-ministrial Commission for Promoting Education Reform was set up and assigned the task of monitoring the progress of actualizing the reform proposals. On April 4, 1998, the Commission approved the proposed Twelve Education Reform Mandates (教育改革行動方案), allocating a special budget of NT$ 150,000,000,000 (equivalent to US$ 5 billions) for the unprecedented mission to be accomplished in five years. The proposal was then finalized by the Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan on May 14, 1998, leaving greater leverage for unprecedented education changes in Taiwan. These twelve education reform mandates run as follows:
1. Revamping National Education Projects, K-12.
2. Fostering Pre-school and Kindergarten Education Programs.
3. Renovating Teacher Education and In-service Training Programs.
4. Promoting Impeccable Diversified Vocational Education.
5. Pursuing Excellence in Higher Education and Its Development.
6. Advocating Lifelong Learning Projects.
7. Strengthening Educational Programs Designed for the Handicapped.
8. Invigorating Educational Programs for the Native Taiwanese (Aboriginals).
9. Expanding Access to Colleges and Universities.
10. Creating a New System Integrating Teaching, Guidance, and Counseling.
11. Increasing the Educational Budget for the Enhancement of Educational Research.
12. Accelerating the Promotion of Family Value/Ethics through Parental Education.

FROM MANDATES TO LEGISLATION
Since the Executive Yuan has set time limit for implementing the Reform Mandates within 5 years, the Ministry of Education and the related Educational Authorities in Taiwan took immediately the coordinated initiatives to review and revise the existing laws and to enact the new laws. Among these pieces of legislation the revised University Law, the Teacher Education Act and the Law of Teacher Union and Teacher Selection are thought to be particularly significant in restructuring education system in Taiwan. Moreover, the promulgation of the Education Basic Law has laid the cornerstone of fundamental educational innovation for the coming millennium.
First of all, so far as the revision of University Law is concerned, it launched an accelerated process of educational liberalization and deregulation. The new University Law has reduced the centralized power of the Ministry of Education over universities and colleges, and consequently the campus operations have become more flexible. New system of selection and/or election of academic chief(department head, dean and university president) has replaced the old system, which deans and department heads are used to be appointed by University president, and university president by Ministry of Education. To assure more financial autonomy of public universities, a " University Development Fund System" was established to provide more flexibility to public universities in using their revenue from students' tuition fees, college-enterprise cooperation and research projects. However, where is freedom, there is responsibility. Under this system, the public universities have to assume the full responsibility for some 20% of their annual operation. Each university will take the consequences when it comes to deficit and will thus have to raise fund for university operation. The way to acquire educational resources will become a very serious issue for most of the public universities.
As for the free market mechanism in restructuring teacher education, the new Teacher Education Act plays a crucial role in the supply and demand of qualified teachers. According to the new Act, access to institute teachers education program is open to all the qualified universities, in contrast to the previous planned teacher education, that is, only national universities are accredited exclusively to set up teacher training program. The Administrative Guideline for Accreditation of Teacher Education Program encourages the universities to build teacher training programmes full of their own distinct feathers. In order to win in the highly competitive market of teacher's employment, each university will establish specifically characteristic teacher education program to attract more able teacher students.
Moreover, with the enactment of Teacher Union and Selection Law, not only is teacher's professional quality more guaranteed, but also is his professional right protected from political and ideological interferences. According to the law, the right to recruit new teachers is authorized to the Selection and Screening Committee of Teachers. Thus the possible bias resulted from arbitrary preference of school headmaster or principal to employ unsuitable teacher can be avoided. When teachers' professional rights are encroached upon, they can appeal to local and then to central Committee of Appeal and Arbitration for Teachers asking for redress.
Finally, the most important piece of educational legislation in recent years in Taiwan is the Education Basic Law. Fundamental and drastic changes in education will be expected in the near future after the enactment of the Law. The Law stipulates that all the people are the subject of educational right (Article 2). People's right to accept education is thus fully protected and students' subjectivity and individuality are properly respected. With the Law, the government can extend the period for compulsory education from the current nine years to 12 years (Article 11). The Law also provides that the central government must delegate more authority to local administrations in handling education, thus allowing a more diversified and localized curriculum for students (Article 9). In addition, underprivileged students, including those who live in remote areas, will be given special treatment to ensure their equal educational opportunities (Article 4). The Law also requires educational authorities to remain neutral when giving instruction on the subjects of politics and religion and make sure they don't influence education. Educational authorities are not allowed to force students, teachers or staff members to participate in political and religious activities, or to promote political or religious groups (Article 6).
The Education Basic Law is paving the way for the implementation of numerous education innovations in Taiwan.

FROM LEGISLATION TO CONCRETE MEASURES
Before and after the promulgation of the Education Basic Law on June 23, 1999, the Ministry of Education and the related educational authorities in Taiwan have made many efforts to review existing educational laws and administrative decrees. After careful study, many Education Reform Initiatives have announced. Among the reform programs, the following three are thought to be most important in bringing about radical changes for betterment of educational quality:

1. Improvement of System of Admission to University and to Senior High School
Taiwan like many Asian countries, Japan, Korea, e.g., has been prevailed by a phenomenon of so-called " school promotionism ". In order to climb up the school ladder to reach university and college, once youngsters are in high school they have to spend long hours in coaching classes which prepared them for entrance examination, held annually. In a period of three years, they have to pass two highly competitive entrance examinations, one to enter academic type senior high schools and the other to enter colleges and universities.
In order to reduce students' working load and parents' heavy burden, a new System of Multiple Channels for Admission will be enforced from academic year 2002. Three main channels of admission are instituted: The first one is called " selection through recommendation, in which a university selects candidates among students recommended by high schools according to the criteria prescribed by its departments. The second selection mechanism is through a two-stage process: the admission is dependent on the results of two examinations. The first examination administered by College Entrance Examination Center includes 5 basic high school teaching subjects. The second examination includes the subjects assigned by the university according to its own need and academic standard. The third channel of admission is through only one examination, of which only the four or five assigned teaching subjects are tested.
The entrance to senior high school is also undergoing a drastic change. The joint entrance examination of senior high school will be completely abolished in 2001. The result of Basic Competency Test of Junior High School will become the main criteria for senior high school for selecting students and/or approving the admission- -application.

2. Scheme of Basic Competency Test for Junior High School Students
In correspondence to the reform of senior high school entrance admission, a Scheme of Basic Competency Test for Junior High School Students has been envisaged to be enforced in 2000. In contrast to the achievement test of previous joint entrance examination, the Basic Competency Test aims to evaluate the students' fundamental knowledges and skills. The students can take one or multiple times test. They can choose the best one result of the tests to apply for the admission to the senior high schools. The test contents are confined to the subject categories as defined by Nine-year Integrated Curricula.

3.Nine-year Integrated Curricula

Among reform initiatives, the Nine-year Integrated Curricula starting 2001 is the most influential education innovation, which will bring about not only structural, but also substantial educational changes. The new curricula will significantly simplify in the treatment of the great diversity of subjects in elementary and junior high schools (1st to 9th grades). Previously the elementary and junior high school subjects are taught separately and are not linked with each other in functions. With the new curricula the teaching subjects (from grade 1 to grade 9) will be integrated into the following categories:
1." Languages and Literature" will include the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing- the basic abilities of efficient communication.
2." Physical and Mental Health" will include physical and mental development, and athletic skills.
3." Social Sciences" will cover motifs such as history and culture, geographic environment, social system and civic responsibilities.
4." Arts and Humanities" will be divided into music, fine arts and performing arts.
5." Mathematics" will focus on solving process and inferring abilities.
6." Nature and Sciences" will cover themes such as resources and energy, natural life and environment.
7." Multiple Activities" will contain group programs and activities such as counseling and resource utilization.
In addition, schools are authorized the right to design their own curricula with local feathers, even with schools' unique characteristics. Therefore all the schools will have to set up curriculum-developing committees to design their own teaching materials and activities.
To enforce the new reform programs, the business of the greatest urgency at present is to affirm the nation's education resources and preparation. All the teachers have to participate urgently in the in-service training programs in order to adjust their teaching methods and teaching attitudes so as to meet the change of curricula.


IV. TRENDS AND ISSUES

Based on the above discussions, the following trends of education reform in Taiwan can be observed:
1.The introduction of market mechanism into educational process has forced governments to reduce their control over education.
2.Through pursuing social goals and international competitiveness, education in Taiwan has turned to individual dignity, value and learning needs.
3.Children's educational right, parents' right to choose suitable education types for their children and teachers' professional autonomy are duly respected and protected.
4.Multiple channels of admission to senior high schools and universities are designed to secure substantial educational equality and social justice.
5.Flexible integrated curriculum is designed to meet individual, social needs and to cultivate competent citizens with international vision.
6.Learning society is under the process of planning to secure continuous national development.
However, serious educational problems are also caused by the imbalance between competition and social justice, between power of private sector, parents, school and government. Most of the teachers are in need of in-service training to adapt their teaching methods and attitudes so as to meet the challenges of educational reform.
Furthermore, ideology conflicts seem inevitably to be found behind the afore-mentioned education reform measures in Taiwan. In order to form her own national and cultural identity, Taiwan tries every possible to get ride of Japanese colonial influence and escape from China-oriented nationalism. An increase of the teaching material of local history and geography as well as local arts is evidently seen in the recent curriculum reform at very school level. In the wake of pluralism and mutual respect of all the ethnic groups in Taiwan, varieties of Taiwanese dialects have become the required courses in the primary school in contrast to their prohibition in favour of the monopoly of Mandarin in school curriculum under the Martial Law control before 1987. All in all, local or indigenous forms of knowledge and value are cherished in the recent education reform.
Localization is not, however, the only way of education reform leading to form self-identity and national posperity for Taiwan. The world today, as the Joint Statement of the Second APEC Education Ministerial Meeting (APEC, 2000) declare," is now truly the global village it was once envisaged to be. ". The advancement of science and technology, has make all parts of the world much more interconnected and mutual interdependent. Global economic and social trends will have impacts on the educational development. Internationalization of education is thus necessary to open the door for better mutual understanding and appreciation of rich diversities. It is in this spirit of the age that makes Taiwan take internationalization as one of the major mottos in the education reform. The measures for promoting educational internationalization includes mainly training teachers for English courses in primary schools, instituting systems of transfer of credits between universities, creating inter-university and international programs, enhancing budget for inviting foreign visiting scholars and assisting students to study abroad, etc. All the measures aim to help students acquire new knowledge about other cultures and countries.
Tensions between internationalization and localization seem to be arising in education reform. However, internationalization should not be confined to the understanding of other cultures and interchanges of the values and knowledges in international arena. Internationalization, as an overarching objective, is defined by R. M. Paige and J. A. Mestenhauser (1999: 504) as " a complex, multidimensional learning process that includes the integrative, intercultural, interdisciplinary, comparative, transfer of knowledge-technology, contextual and global dimensions of knowledge construction. It is an international mind-set leading to further construction of knowledge and value attitude. Only this perspective can resolve the ideology conflicts in Taiwan education reform. Localization of education will make Taiwanese people aware better their own cultural roots so as to give them points of reference that enable them to determine their place in the world. This clear cultural self-identity is the starting point of learning process towards understanding and respect for the cultures and spiritual value of various civilizations. The final ideal of education reform in Taiwan should therefore lie in the harmonious integration of localization and internationalization that leads to help people have a better self understanding and understanding of the world.

Science and universities of Vietnam in the context of East Asia: a survey of publications in international journals

P. D. Hien
Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety


Introduction

Following Japan, over the last decades South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and recently, China, have been successful in catching up with European and North American front runners in the world arena and global economy. Science and education, especially higher education, have been a driving force behind building the capacity of these globally competitive economies in East Asia.
In higher education, research universities play a crucial role in training high-level specialists, scientists, and researchers, who make up a pool of knowledge on which the country’s capability for technology adaptation (mainly for developing countries) and innovation is built-up (United Nations, 2005). Research Universities are expected to produce cutting edge science and technology and publishing research products in refereed prestigious international journals is a requisite for assuring their quality. Therefore, international publications are among key criteria used in ranking the world-class universities (THES, 2004; Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2005).
Vietnam has adopted free market policies only recently after many decades of war and the centrally planned Soviet system. It is obvious that in higher education Vietnam lags behind neighboring countries like Thailand and Malaysia, and has a long way to go to reach the current levels of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. In this context, the comparison of research performance of East Asian countries based on international publications (IP) will help reveal regional trends that Vietnam may need to consider in reforming its Higher Education system (Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 2005).
Hereafter, IPs only refers to articles in peer-reviewed Thomson-Reuters ISI-cited journals (http://isiwebofknowledge.com). By using the ISI database, an overall picture can be obtained about the research performance of eleven East Asian countries and territories with regard to the volume and growth rate of IPs, citations, and the contributions from domestic versus foreign authors. The amounts of IPs or citations calculated for one million population were used for characterizing the national science capability (NSC), as well as for revealing the possible relationship between research output and socioeconomic development.
As a case study, the comparison of research performance of top universities in Vietnam and Thailand will reveal the distance that Vietnam universities still have to go in order to be recognized as achieving some regional standard.

National science capability

Table 1 shows the volume and growth rate of IPs for 11 countries and territories in East Asia in 2002 and 2008. China and Japan, the two most populous countries in East Asia, occupy first and second place, respectively. To make the data in Table 1 comparable across countries, we will consider the total IPs per one million people in the population, which is called the national science capability (NSC).
The NSC of each East Asian country is growing at a roughly constant rate, as shown in Fig. 1. Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia have been growing rather rapidly, at about 16% annually. However, the NSC of Vietnam remains 6.5 and 9.5 times lower than Thailand and Malaysia, respectively. In the meantime, it is still three times as high as Indonesia’s and since 2004 has exceeded the Philippines’s, which maintains an annual growth rate of only 3-4%. China has developed the fastest with above 20%/year. It has overcome Thailand and is about to catch up with Malaysia in terms of NSC. In contrast, the most advanced economies in the region with high numbers of IPs have maintained lower annual growth rates, i.e. South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore: about 10%, Hong Kong: 7% and Japan: 1%.


Table1 Total IPs and growth rates of 11 countries and territories in East Asia in 2002 and 2008


2002 2008 IP growth,
%/year
China 31721 94766 20
Japan 59253 64039 1,3
Korea 14948 29114 11
Taiwan 10610 20122 11
Singapore 3863 6661 10
Hong Kong 2862 4221 7
Thailand 1547 3904 16
Malaysia 901 2658 16
Vietnam 324 806 16
Indonesia 400 668 8
Philippines 398 607 3,5


In terms of NSC, Singapore occupies the first place in the region, about 30, 170 and 530 times higher than Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, respectively. Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan are next after Singapore. Such large gaps in NSC are observed not only between the regional top and bottom performers, but also between different groups of countries in East Asia (Fig. 1). To a great extent, these gaps reflect different levels of socioeconomic development in the region. In fact, within East Asia NSC correlates strongly with per capita GDP and even more strongly with UN’s human development index, hdi (UNDP, 2006), which combines normalized measures of per capita GDP, literacy, educational attainment, and life expectancy (Fig. 2). This finding shows the crucial role of research in building the national innovation capability that is relevant not only for technologically advanced economies but also for developing countries relying mainly on adaptation of imported technology (United Nation, 2005).






Figure1. National Science Capability (NSC) of East Asian countries determined as the total International Publications (IPs) per one million population.


























Figure 2. NSC strongly correlate with per capita GDP (left) and even more strongly with hdi, (right). Data for 2004.


The quality of research

The NSC defined above does not capture the quality of IP that varies drastically among ISI-cited journals (impact factor) as well as within a journal, as shown by the citations of IPs in the ISI database. While caution is needed when using citations for comparing the quality of IP or researcher of different fields, the average or total citations can be regarded as the most reliable criterion for comparing the quality of research products from institutions and countries dealing with multidisciplinary research. Citations in peer-reviewed journals are considered one of the most reliable indicators of national science capacity (King, 2004).
The average number of citations can be obtained from the total citations that are available from the ISI database for countries with research output of less than 10,000 IPs/year. For countries producing more than this threshold (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China) the average citations were computed by random sampling across the database with the relative standard errors of less than 5%. The results are shown in figure 3.
To obtain an indicator that is able to capture both the quantity and quality of IPs, the NSC defined above based on the number of IP (NSC-IP) should be multiplied by the average citations in order to obtain the total citations per one million population (NSC-citation). Within East Asia NSC-citation correlates with per capita GDP and hdi similarly well as NSC-IP does. Thus, both NSC-IP and NSC-citation can be regarded as good proxies for socioeconomic development. However, the use of NSC-citation as a development indicator is inconvenient because it varies with the date of access to the ISI database.
The average citations of East Asian countries in Fig. 3 do not reflect the levels of science and technology development in the region, unlike NSC-IP (Fig. 1). IPs from China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and South Korea are, on average, less cited than those from Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. The analysis of the origins of authors contributing to the IPs in the next section will explain this matter.




Figure 3 Average citations of East Asian countries for ISI articles
published in 2004. Access to ISI database: August 2009.


Domestic versus foreign authors.

The NSC-IP and NSC-citation discussed above did not take into account the fact that a great number of authors contributing to the IPs are foreigners. The statistics in figure 4 derived from the built-in tool “Analyse” in the ISI database show that the proportion of foreign-to-domestic authors varies from about 30% for China, Taiwan, and Japan to 218% for Philippines.
IPs of countries with weak science capability such as Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam rely heavily on foreign authors, most of whom are from North America, Western Europe and Japan. In this case, a large number of IPs are done essentially in these advanced countries through bilateral scientific cooperation or fellowship of young scientists from the less developed countries. As shown in the next section, these IPs are cited much more than those done by domestic authors using much weaker resources, especially in research fields that require sophisticated laboratory facilities. This explains the fact found in Fig. 3 that Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand rank ahead of China, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan in terms of average citations..
Meanwhile, IPs from advanced East Asian countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and China are dominated by domestic authors.
The proportion of foreign-to-domestic authors results from the interplay of the two trends, namely the strengthening of both internal resources/infrastructure (human and material) and external cooperation in science and technology. Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have kept the growth rates in both efforts steady so that the foreign-to-domestic proportions did not change over the period 2002-2008 (Fig. 4). For Japan, Singapore, and especially Philippines international cooperation have been expanding faster resulting in the rise of the proportions. Conversely, for Malaysia and China domestic research infrastructures seem to have developed faster than international cooperation.
Thus, besides the volume and quality (citation) of IPs a third dimension is revealed on the extent of self-reliance in scientific research that reflects the real strength of a country in science and technology and, on the other hand, brings benefits directly to the country’s socioeconomic development through the linkage of research institutions with business and industries.




Figure 4. The proportion of foreign-to-domestic authors in
IPs across 11 East Asian countries and territories



In general, it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly whether an IP is carried out mostly in the country using domestic resources or essentially done abroad. In this study, the address of the corresponding author available from the ISI data base will be used to distinguish between the two IP categories. This approach is justified by the two reasons. First, it is obvious if all co-authors contributing to the article are domestic. In the case of Vietnam, this sub-category accounts for about two-thirds of articles with domestic corresponding authors. Second, a sharp difference of citations of the two IP categories is observed especially in the case of IPs from less advanced countries (see the next section).
The above approach can also be applied to assess the strength of various domestic research fields of a country. As an example, Table 2 shows the case of Vietnam. In many research fields, especially those of great importance for socioeconomic development, such as medicine and agriculture, most IPs are done essentially by foreign authors. Conversely, mathematics and theoretical physics, which require little investment in research infrastructure, are the two strongest research fields not only in the amount of IPs but also in self-reliance from foreign authors.

R&D performance of top Vietnamese universities

To see what position Vietnam’s top universities occupy in the world’s higher education in terms of research performance, we can look to Thailand’s top universities Chulalongkorn and Mahidol for comparison. Chulalongkorn University was among the top 200 world-class universities in 2005, 2007, and 2008 according to the ranking by The Times Higher Education Supplements (THES).







Table 2 Research fields in Vietnam with foreign and indigenous corresponding authors, 2008.

Research field Indigenous corresp. authors Foreign corresp. authors Foreign/
indigenous
Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics 95 21 0.22
Physics, Optics; Applied Physics 52 37 0.71
Plant Sciences; Cell Biology; Develop. Biology 6 6 1.00
Engineering 14 20 1.43
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health 14 25 1.79
Chemistry, Analytical; Electrochemistry; Instrumentation 17 35 2.06
Fisheries 4 10 2.50
Agriculture, Agronomy 7 25 3.57
Zoology 3 13 4.33
Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Pediatrics; Parasitology; Tropical Medicine 14 62 4.40
Geosciences, Geography, Multidisciplinary 4 21 5.25
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology 2 14 7.00
Ecology; Environmental Sciences; Toxicology 4 30 7.50

All Vietnam 301 505 1.68


R&D activities in Thailand are performed mainly in universities, which account for more than 95% of the country’s total IP output, compared with only 55% contribution from universities in Vietnam. Besides Chulalongkorn and Mahidol Universities, Thailand has other prestigious universities such as Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Prince Songkla, Thammasat, and Asian Institute of Technology, each producing a few hundred IPs annually.
The aggregate output of the four top universities in Vietnam (Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Technology, Hanoi University of Education, and Ho Chi Minh City National University) are compared with those of Chulalongkorn and Mahidol Universities in Thailand using statistics of 2004 in Table 3 and 2007 in Table 4.







Table 3 International publications of some top R & D organizations in Vietnam and Thailand in 2004. Access to the ISI data base in December 2008 ...

Total IP Average CN Domestic corresponding author Foreign corresponding author
IP Average CN IP Average CN
Four top universities of Vietnam 80 5.5 36 3.6 44 7.2
VAST (Vietnam’s Academy of Science and Technology) 83 4.3 27 2.8 56 5.1
All Vietnam 403 8.1 102 3.7 301 9.5
Chulalongkorn University 416 9.4 295 7.1 121 15.3
Mahidol University 465 11 320 8.3 145 16.9



Table 4 International publications of some top R & D organizations in Vietnam and Thailand in 2007.


Total IPs Domestic
corresponding
author Percent domestic
Four top Universities of Vietnam 162 99 61%
Vietnam’s Academy of Science and Technology 98 51 52%
All Vietnam 692 234 34%

Chulalongkorn University 709 569 80%
Mahidol University 707 515 73%



The IPs from Vietnam’s top universities has increased rapidly in recent years and has doubled from 2004 to 2007. Despite the fast growth, Vietnam’s top universities still have ten times fewer IPs than Chulalongkorn or Mahidol University. Each of these universities published more than the total number of IPs from all of Vietnam’s research institutions. IPs from Thailand’s universities were also cited more often than those from Vietnam with average citations of about 9.4 - 11 for Thailand vs. 4.1-6.9 for Vietnam (access to the ISI database in December 2008).
There is a remarkable detail in column 3 of Table 3, where the average citations of the five top Vietnamese research institutions (4.3 – 5.5) are less than that of the whole country (8.1). This happens because the IPs associated with the remaining institutions were dominated by authors from advanced countries. For example, among 82 IPs on medical science in 2004, only 7 have Vietnamese corresponding authors.
Vietnamese corresponding authors account only for 25% of the total IP in 2004 and 34% in 2007. The average citation of IPs with domestic corresponding authors is also much lower than that of foreign corresponding authors, i.e. 3.7 vs. 9.5 for 2004 (Table 3).
In contrast, in the two Thailand universities, Thai corresponding authors account for 70% of the total IPs in 2004 (Table 3), and nearly 80% in 2007 (Table 4). Their average citations are also twice as high as that of Vietnam.
With the advancement of science and higher education of the country, both the proportion and quality of IPs with domestic corresponding authors are expected to increase, as shown by the comparison of Thailand vs. Vietnam in Table 3.

The profile of research fields

From the above analysis it is clear that in order to gain insight into the profile of the most advanced research fields in Vietnam, instead of relying on all the IPs, we have to look at those with Vietnamese corresponding authors. Thus, the 234 IPs of this kind from all institutions of Vietnam in 2007 were classified into different research fields, and the results are compared with those (569 IPs) from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand (Table 5).
Most major fields of study in Chulalongkorn university are applied-oriented, such as medicine, chemistry, biochemistry, engineering, materials sciences, agriculture, etc... In contrast, Vietnam’s IPs are dominated by mathematics and physics (half of which is theoretical physics), while the IP output in these two fields is very modest in Chulalongkorn and other Thai universities. The dominance of mathematics and theoretical physics of Vietnam’s IP is explained partly by the inheritance of the previous Soviet-style science and higher education system and the inclination of Vietnamese in abstract thinking. But the most important factor explaining the weakness of applied sciences and engineering in Vietnam is the inadequate science policy and the lack of investment in research and training bases.
Many leading scientific research institutions in Vietnam are absent in international scientific journals. In Hanoi National University, which enrolls more than 30,000 students, IPs from domestic corresponding authors comes only from the School of Engineering and the Math and Physics Departments of the School of Natural Sciences. Similarly, among 19 articles from Ho Chi Minh City National University in 2004, nine were on Physics.
Research fields in food processing, agriculture, and natural resources exploitation, which currently dominate the major export items of Vietnam, are weak in terms of IP using domestic resources. The level of medical research using domestic resources is also not adequate for a country regularly plagued by tropical infectious diseases. In fact, IP output in the medical field is dominated by articles with foreign corresponding authors (Table 2), indicating that efforts in training Vietnamese medical scientists in advanced countries have not yet yielded sufficient professional skills for carrying out advanced research at home. The shortage of professional research skills is observed also in oceanic and atmospheric studies, which are very important for a country which suffers regularly from weather-related calamities and has a long coastline with a large, and potentially productive, exclusive economic zone.

Table 5. International publications by indigenous corresponding authors in 2007 from Chulalongkorn University and from all Vietnamese research institutions classified in research fields


Chulalongkorn University, Thailand All Vietnam
Research fields IP Research fields IP
Chemistry 97 Mathematics 58
Medicine 72 Physics 39
Engineering 51 Engineering 15
Biochemistry, biology 36 Materials science and engineering 12
Synthetic material, cotton yarn 28 Medicine 11
Polymer science 26 Computer science 10
Veterinary 20 Chemistry 9
Biotechnology & microbiology 19 Environment; Geography 7
Botany 14 Nutriology 5
Agriculture 13 Asian study 5
Microbiology 11 Automation and cybernetics 4
Rehabilitation 9 Horticulture 4
Pharmacology & pharmaceutics 8 Energy and fuels 3
Environment; Geography 7 Botany 3
Others (less than 7) 158 Others (less than 3) 50
Total 569 Total 234

Conclusion

This study reveals that the NSC-IP or NSC-citation (defined respectively as the total IPs or total citations per one million population) are closely related to per capita GDP and human development index (hdi), and therefore, they can be used as proxies for socioeconomic development of countries. Singapore leads the East Asia region with 1549 IPs per one million population in 2008, about 30, 170 and 530 times higher than Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, respectively. With regard to the IP growth rate, China has developed the fastest with above 20%/year, followed by Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam with 16%/year, while the most advanced economies in the region with great amounts of IPs have maintained lower growth rates, e.g. Hong Kong: 7%/year and Japan: 1%/year.
Large gaps are also observed within the region regarding the extent of self-reliance in scientific research. The proportion of foreign-to-domestic authors varies from about 30% for China, Taiwan, and Japan to 218% for Philippines. For less advanced countries, articles with foreign corresponding authors are cited much more than those with domestic corresponding authors. Therefore, in order to assess the real capability of research institutions/universities, it is more appropriate to rely on the IPs with domestic corresponding authors, especially when the IPs are dominated by foreign authors, as in the case of Vietnam. With the advancement of the country’s science and higher education both the proportion and quality of IPs with indigenous corresponding authors are expected to increase.
At the moment, the total IPs from Vietnam falls short of output from a single university in Thailand, such as Chulalongkorn or Mahidol. Moreover, domestic corresponding authors account for nearly 80% of IPs from Thailand compared with only 34% from Vietnam. Thailand’s scientific research is closely linked with university training, with 95% of IPs from universities vs. 55% in Vietnam. Also in contrast with Thailand, a majority of IPs from Vietnam are in mathematics and theoretical physics. While many engineering and applied research projects are executed in Vietnam, but the outcomes do not appear in international journals in high numbers.
After more than a decade of reform from a centrally-planned economy to a market- oriented system, Vietnam’s per capita income has surpassed the 1000 USD threshold, enabling the country to escape from a less developed status. Much of the credit goes to the higher education system, which has generated an educated work force for the country’s development. However, the increased challenges faced by a competitive global market require a radical change in the Vietnam’s universities to satisfy increasing demand on skilled manpower (Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 2005). A large number of Vietnam’s universities need to shift from teaching-based to research-oriented.
The above analysis helps suggest approaches for reshaping science and higher education system in Vietnam. The country needs to concentrate more R&D resources and efforts in building multidisciplinary research universities that pursue internationally-recognized standards in teaching, research, and governance. This creates a valuable opportunity to fix the lopsided profile of science and technology, i.e. the shortage of professional skills in engineering, medicine, agriculture, and many other areas of applied and social sciences that prevents universities from being able to meet the social and economic needs of the nation. If this can be done, centers of excellence in teaching, research, and technology innovation will spring up creating a new face of Vietnam’s science and higher education.

References

Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2005), Resolution No. 14/2005/NQ-CP On Fundamental and
Comprehensive Higher Education Reform in Vietnam for the period of 2006 – 2020, 2
November 2005
David A. King (2004), The scientific impact of Nations. Nature, No 430. July 2004.
United Nations (2005) World Investment Report – Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&D, New York and Geneva, 2005.
UNDP (2006) Human Development Report
THES. 2008. The Times Higher Education World Rankings 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.jk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=243&pubCode=1.
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