Table Of ContentUniversity Rankings
William Yat Wai Lo
University Rankings
Implications for Higher Education in Taiwan
1 3
William Yat Wai Lo
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
Hong Kong SAR
People’s Republic of China
ISBN 978-981-4560-34-4 ISBN 978-981-4560-35-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-4560-35-1
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For my parents
v
Preface
University rankings have become an increasingly important research topic in higher
education studies. The prevalence of university rankings has intensified discussions
about performance and competition in the higher education sector, including that
of Taiwan. Rankings and the many related phenomena, like increased competition
among institutions and systems, the pursuits of research excellence as well as the
call for internationalisation and building world-class university, have come into the
centre of discussion. This book adopts a qualitative case study approach to provide a
systemic delineation and interpretation of the implications of university rankings for
Taiwan’s higher education. It reviews the literature on different theories concerning
the global transformation of higher education, and gives basic information on high-
er education in Taiwan. Based on the literature reviewed, a four-dimensional frame-
work is developed for the analysis of the ranking phenomenon in the island-state.
The four dimensions are seen as making up two clusters in which the two ecological
dimensions (Dimensions 1 and 2) are on one side; the two geographical dimensions
(Dimensions 3 and 4) are on the other. The ecological dimensions suggest that the
ranking phenomenon has caused significant influences on higher education policy,
university governance and individual behaviours. Dimension 1 therefore seeks to
examine how the emergence of university rankings has influenced Taiwan’s higher
education based on the accounts of practices and values provided by academics.
Dimension 2 provides a theoretical description of how and why university rankings
may be a powerful driving force transforming institutional and individual behav-
iours and perceptions. The geographical dimensions relate the ranking phenomenon
to the international issues of higher education. Dimension 3 is concerned with the
relevance of university rankings to the changing global landscape of higher educa-
tion and sees university rankings as an institution that projects power in global
higher education. Dimension 4 provides an in-depth exploration of the international
arena of university rankings in the light of postcolonial discourse and argues that
the implications of rankings can possibly bring both positive and negative conse-
quences for the global higher education in terms of quality and diversity. These four
dimensions show how the ranking phenomenon can be read and explained through
theoretical lenses from ecological and geographical perspectives. In regard to eco-
logical perspective, the empirical evidences suggest that the influence of univer-
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viii Preface
sity rankings varies throughout the academic hierarchy in Taiwan. The theoretical
analysis then illustrates the relationship between the ranking phenomenon and the
power structure in academic hierarchy. As for geographical perspective, while the
empirical analysis has been focused on the case of Taiwan, the theoretical analysis
offers important insights to understand the changing global landscape of higher
education and its implications for higher education in East Asia.
Acknowledgements
This book and the study that the book presents are highly indebted to numerous
people. First and foremost, I gratefully acknowledge the advice and guidance of
Mok Ka Ho, Misa Izuhara and Ray Forrest. I have known Ka Ho since I studied for
my bachelor’s degree at City University of Hong Kong. During the years at City
University and later at the University of Bristol, I had the privilege to work closely
with him. Without his support and the opportunities he has opened up to me in the
academic world, I would not be able to carry out this research. I sincerely thank
Misa and Ray. Their critical comments and questions undoubtedly helped to im-
prove this research. I am especially thankful for Misa’s continuing support during
the final stages of the study.
I am grateful to Roger Dale and Yang Rui for their constructive and helpful com-
ments which have enriched the final version of the research. The research has also
benefited from continuous exchanges with my colleagues and friends in the Hong
Kong Institute of Education and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Special
thanks to Bob Adamson, James Lee and David Ip who are always generous in giv-
ing me help and supportive of my research. I also wish to thank my academic col-
leagues and friends, Rupert Maclean, Mark Mason, Jae Park, Anthony Welch, Dean
Neubauer, John Hawkins and Angela Hou, with all of whom I have at times shared
my research ideas about higher education development in East Asia. My apologies
to those I have inadvertently omitted. Their insightful comments helped me formu-
late and clarify many ideas in this book.
I thank all my fieldwork respondents in Taiwan who shared their time, thought
and insights with me. Special thanks are extended to Chan Sheng-Ju, Chiu Hao-
Chieh, Ku Yeun-Wen, Shi Shih-Jiun and Chiang Tien-Hui for provision of contacts
in some of the sampled universities. Thanks should also go to the many conference
audiences to whom I have presented papers which are earlier versions or portions of
the chapters in this book, particularly at the conferences of the Comparative Educa-
tion Society of Hong Kong, the Chinese Taipei Comparative Education Society and
the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association.
I thank Felix Ng for excellent research assistance and updating the tables and fig-
ures. I also thank Lawrence Liu and Kanako Tanaka at Springer for their excellent
editorial work. Parts of this book are based on articles that were published in Higher
ix
x Acknowledgements
Education Policy and Globalisation, Societies and Education. I wish to thank the
editors and publishers of these journals.
I want to express my gratitude to Eric Poon, Raymond Wong, Andy Chan, Wang
Li, Huang Zebin, Rita Tsai, Lin Wen-Wen and Grace Guo for their friendship. They
gave me encouragement and assured me of the worthiness of my efforts. Last but
not the least, I express my love and deepest gratitude to my parents, Lo Tam Faat
and Pun Wai Fong, who gave me lots of love and made numerous sacrifices to en-
sure that I finished my study. I dedicate this book to them.
Notes on Usage
Throughout the text, I use the following short forms for place names for ease of
expression. I recognise that, in constitutional terms, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
are all parts of China.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic Hong Kong
of China
Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic Macao
of China
People’s Republic of China Mainland China/China
Republic of China Taiwan
Throughout the text, I give all monetary amounts in New Taiwan dollars (NT$).
NT$ 100 is roughly equal to US$ 3.3.
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