University education in Taiwan and related news from Europe

Higher education in Taiwan has been a topic of discussion recently by a popular Taiwan blogger who is also an English instructor in university, and by another blogger who is teaching Finance in university, and by a teammate blogger who also writes a personal blog called the Letters from Taiwan.

I think it will be helpful to flip some old news from Europe for policy makers and educators in Taiwan to think about where to go from here for the university education in Taiwan.

More foreigners earning PhDs in Sweden Published: 28 May 09

'Sweden doesn't need more universities': Leijonborg Published: 13 Mar 09

In my opinion, Taiwan’s universities should go for quality rather than quantity. And in order to become more competitive globally, universities in Taiwan will have to make some investment, offering competitive salaries to teaching staff, offering scholarships to top students. Also, merge some universities or transform some of them into colleges (like College of Engineering, College of Fine Arts, etc.) which concentrate on specific field of studies and constitute only branches under a national or a private university. Other universities may have to be closed unfortunately.