US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI3282

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 003282 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/TC, EAP/PD 
PLEASE PASS AIT/W 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, KPAO, SCUL, SOCI, TW 
SUBJECT: Taiwan Education: Lee Yuan-tseh's Perspective 
 
REF: TAIPEI 2768 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In an interview with AIT, Nobel Prize 
winner and education reform leader Lee Yuan-tseh gave his 
perspective on issues in Taiwan higher education.  Lee 
expressed concern that colleges continue to upgrade to 
university status, leading to more mediocre institutions and 
students.  He supports the US$1.5 billion budget to get a 
Taiwan research university into the international top 100. 
Lee criticized the Ministry of Education for bowing to 
political pressures to freeze tuition, and said Taiwan needs 
to adopt a more American-style university admissions system. 
End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Lee Yuan-tseh is an influential public figure in 
Taiwan academia and politics.  A Nobel Prize winner in 
chemistry, Lee has served as president of Academia Sinica 
since 1994 and is one of the architects of education reform 
in Taiwan (described reftel).  He headed the initial reform 
commission in 1994 that recommended the expansion of higher 
education and changes to curricula to emphasize Taiwan 
history and culture.  Since then, Lee has been a focus of 
criticism of education reform.  Students and parents have 
blamed Lee for initiating reforms that increased the 
academic burden on students, led to frequent and confusing 
changes to curricula, and encouraged rapid growth in the 
number of universities that left the system over-expanded 
and under-funded.  In the past several years, Lee has 
participated less frequently in public debates over 
education reform, but has remained deeply involved in higher 
education issues.  In an interview with AIT, Lee gave his 
perspective on current issues in Taiwan higher education. 
 
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Too Many Mediocre Universities and Students 
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3. (SBU) Lee echoed the most common criticism of education 
reform, stating that Taiwan has too many mediocre 
universities and colleges.  He noted that although the 
Ministry of Education (MOE) had pledged to stop the flow of 
new institutions, it recently approved several colleges to 
upgrade their status to universities.  Just this week, 
President Chen Shuibian called for establishment of a new 
technical college on a visit to the Pescadore Islands.  Lee 
predicts that despite widespread criticism, the number of 
colleges becoming universities will continue to rise, and 
stated that the trend is worrisome.  As a result of the glut 
of universities and colleges, Lee said a university 
education is becoming the equivalent of a high school degree 
- it is increasingly required to do even very low-level 
jobs.  He noted that people in Taiwan see university as a 
"rung on the social ladder to white-collar jobs," which they 
think will be easy and high-paying. 
 
4. (SBU) Discussing Taiwan students' often-cited "lack of 
international perspective," Lee finds the general 
perspective in Taiwan to be fairly narrow and domestically 
oriented, and criticized Taiwan news media for its lack of 
international coverage.  However, he noted that there are 
many young people in Taiwan who have attended school in 
North America, giving them international experience and good 
English skills.  Lee stated that he's not concerned about 
the caliber of top students -- it's the level of the average 
student that needs work. 
 
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US$1.5 Billion Will Get Taiwan in the Top 100 
--------------------------------------------- 
5. (SBU) In a bid to raise Taiwan universities' 
international profile, the government has launched the World- 
Class University Initiative, with a special budget of US$1.5 
billion over five years.  The budget will most likely be 
given entirely to one or two universities, with the goal of 
getting a Taiwan research institution into the international 
top 100 in the next ten years.  Lee has been a major 
proponent of the initiative.  He said that while it would be 
difficult to quickly raise a Taiwan university to the level 
of Harvard or MIT, he is confident that they can reach a 
high level of international recognition.  There has been 
criticism of the decision to focus the funding on only one 
or two universities rather than spreading it over a larger 
group, but Lee defended it as the most effective use of the 
money.  He said that Taiwan is experiencing the tendency of 
a democratic society to spread its money too thin, but that 
he would even be satisfied with spending half of the budget 
on one university and dividing the other half among a larger 
group. 
 
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University Merger Inevitable, With or Without Vote 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
6. (SBU) Two top Taiwan institutions, Tsinghua and Chiaotong 
Universities, had planned a merger that would make them the 
top candidate for the special budget, but in late June the 
Chiaotong faculty voted down the merger proposal.  Lee, who 
participated in planning for the merger proposal, expressed 
disappointment at the vote, but said Tsinghua and Chiaotong 
will continue to collaborate, and a de facto merger would 
happen eventually.  He noted that the two universities have 
neighboring campuses and are very similar in their emphasis 
on science and technology.  In discussions with the faculty 
of both universities, Lee found that they have the same 
ambitions, so it makes sense that they should collaborate 
more closely.  While there is some opposition to change, 
especially among alumni, the majority of stakeholders were 
in favor of the merger.  The vote was 3 to 2 in favor at 
Chiaotong, and 10 to 1 in favor at Tsinghua, but since 
Chiaotong required a two-thirds majority to pass the 
proposal, it failed.  Lee hopes the MOE will encourage them 
to establish communal dorms, a college of medical science, 
and hospital, but says the two should keep the undergraduate 
colleges separate to maintain their identities.  While 
further mergers have been suggested as a solution to the 
oversupply of universities, Lee argued that mergers require 
careful planning, and that they work best if campuses are in 
close proximity. 
 
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MOE Waffles on Tuition Increases 
-------------------------------- 
7. (SBU) In late July, the MOE announced that, after a 
series of protests by student groups and Taiwan Solidarity 
Union (TSU) legislators, it would reduce the final number of 
universities permitted to increase tuition next year from 
eighteen to ten.  (The MOE had originally proposed 63 
institutions, but reduced it to 18 after an earlier round of 
protests.)  Lee said the MOE's most serious problem is that 
education issues have become too politicized, and the MOE 
doesn't have the political will to make unpopular decisions 
like raising tuition.  He argued that Taiwan has only been a 
democracy for about ten years, and that people don't yet 
understand the consensus-building process.  Lee said the 
MOE's tendency is to listen to the loudest dissenting 
voices, and choose the option in which nothing changes. 
 
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Taiwan Needs US-Style University Admissions 
------------------------------------------- 
8. (SBU) Lee raised the issue of university admissions, 
which is primarily based on entrance exam scores.  Since 
2002, some university departments have had the option of 
admitting students through a "special channel," which is 
similar to the American admissions system.  Lee noted that 
the students admitted through the special channel are the 
most motivated and best-performing, because they have a true 
interest in the subjects they are studying.  Under the 
entrance exam system, students do not necessarily study the 
subjects which most interest them, but end up in the most 
prestigious departments their scores will permit. Lee argued 
that to get more motivated students, Taiwan needs to further 
change university admissions to rely less on entrance exam 
scores.  He said that in order to make these changes, 
universities will need a higher degree of autonomy from the 
MOE. 
 
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Comment 
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9. (SBU) A highly educated workforce has been the driving 
force behind Taiwan's economic development, and remains its 
best hope for continued growth.  For this reason, 
expectations for the education system are extremely high, 
and criticism of its quality is common.  While Lee Yuan-tseh 
has in the past often been the focus of this criticism, he 
is not as directly involved in policymaking as he was in the 
1990s.  For an ally of the Chen administration and leader of 
Taiwan academia, Lee has been fairly critical of the MOE's 
current leadership, and of the results of the reforms he 
initiated.  End comment.  (Cable prepared by AIT Econ intern 
Anne Bilby.)