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Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Challenges for Higher education in Asia
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
These photos from Hubert Kilian capture the cadence of campus life in Taipei. For many students class is of primary importance at university. However the moments between classes can be just as enriching. Walking, chatting, day-dreaming, sleeping, sharing, cuddling or stressing. These are often the memories that stay with us into the future.
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Taiwan's Deputy Minister for Education discusses his hopes for higher education in Taiwan.
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Paul Farrelly from eRenlai reflects on his experiences of higher education in Australia. In particular, he talks about the changing role of information technology, student life and some of the skills he learnt.
Read more: Reflections on a decade of higher education in Australia
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Nina is a student at Taiwan's third (and Taipei's first) gender studies graduate institute. She lets us know about gender discrimination in Taiwanese universities and in society in general.
Read more: Be back by midnight: Equality in Taiwan's higher education?
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Roy Berman, scholar in history of education in Asia and specialist in Japanese colonial period textbooks, talks about the legacy that Japan left in Taiwan's education system.
The first democratically elected president of the Republic of China, Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), received his Bachelors degree from Kyoto University, Japan. Tsai Pei-huo (蔡培火), who flourished as a scholar under the Japanese, tried three times to create a writing system for the Taiwanese language using Zhuyin (bopomofo), Romanisation and Japanese. Furthermore the first universities in Taiwan were established by the Japanese and according to Roy, the buildings and campuses a lot more traditional than most in Japan.
Read more: Remnants of the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan's education system
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Chun-Yen Huang is a student at Hualien's Dun Hwa University. He prefers a natural and relaxed study environment to the hustle and bustle of west Taiwan. At his campus, which rests between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, he takes time in the mornings to watch the animals...and not only the squirrels...
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Here, Roy Berman, who is familiar with top level academia in both the US and Japan, talks about his experiences at Kyoto University and more generally the Japanese higher education system.
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Alice Lin has spent time all around the world. How does she evalutae education in Singapore?
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Annie Lai's path to university was a very different struggle to the normal one. She explains her tough route to Providence University in Taichung, Taiwan. Furthermore, she explains why she feels that despite the struggles it's worth the effort.
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Conor Stuart is currently a Masters student at Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies at National Taiwan University (NTU). Sitting pensively in front of NTU’s infamous Drunken Moon Lake he discussed study at Taiwan’s number one university, not only as a foreign student, but also the sole representative at NTU of his homeland, Northern Ireland.How do you compare your experiences of British and Taiwanese education systems?We often hear that the Asian system is learning by rote but in my experience that is not necessarily true. They are aware that they need to have a huge mass of general knowledge. I remember once professor Li Oufan was teaching at our institute and requested that the students hand in shorter essays than normal but...
Read more: Foreign students in Asia: Comparing identities in Northern Ireland and Taiwan
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Please introduce yourself and what you are doing currently. What is your educational background?My name is John Perry*. I am a Canadian who has been working as an English teacher and editor in Taiwan for more than 7 years. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Canada studying marketing and psychology.How do you regard the quality of your courses and universities?I was quite pleased with the quality of the education that I received in Canada, however it was quite a long time ago, when I was very young, so I believe I had a different outlook then. Finishing school and getting good grades were more the priorities when I was doing my undergrad rather than getting the best education I could get. All in all, I thought the professors generally...
Read more: Foreign students in Asia: From teacher to student
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
Higher education (HE) is an ancient institution. Generation upon generation of students have graduated from all manner of HE institutes trained in the skills required to serve society. While fields such as biology, philosophy, religion and mathematics have long been taught, advances in technology, breakthroughs in research and societal change constantly challenge HE. In order to respond to the needs of society and reflect contemporary thought, HE must forever be adapting. Globalisation and the growth of information technology are two rapidly evolving forces that that HE must not only just respond to, but also influence.In considering HE in the early 21st century, it is important to question what benefit it should provide. Is HE nothing...
Read more: What are the challenges facing higher education in Asia?
Focus: Challenges for Higher Education
During the last summer I conducted research on the viability of the implementation of Human Capital Contracts in a developing country. As I am Colombian and was familiar with the information available, the obvious start was to focus on my country. However, as I have been living in Asia and have been in contact with developing countries in this part of the world, I would like to develop a similar analysis here. In this article, I try to explain to Asian readers what Human Capital Contracts are; maybe some readers will want to follow me or join in the research presented here.
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