CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.5 Definition of Terms
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years in Taiwan and in France. Implications discussed in this study will be valuable to future similar research because it highlights the specific areas that will need to be improved.
1.5 Definition of Terms
For a clearer understanding of the terms used in this study, their meaning is defined below.
College admission is defined as the process by which students enroll into higher education, in the case of this study “the process through which students enroll into university.”
College admission testing requirements are interpreted as the examinations that university candidates have to pass. Candidates do not have to undergo all the available tests and are able to in certain cases, choose the test they want to take such as the Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) and the Advanced Subjects Test (AST) in Taiwan and all forms of Baccalaureate in France. In the case of this study only the Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT), the Advanced Subjects Test (AST) and the French Baccalaureate will be taken into account.
Finally, the definition of the massification of higher education used in this study is the action of bringing education to a world audience32; this is the process of shifting the education from an elite-centered to a mass-centered, to open the access to higher education to all students from diverse backgrounds without any social discriminations.
32 Yuzer, T. V., & Kurubacak, G. (n.d.). Handbook of research on emerging priorities and trends in distance education: Communication, pedagogy, and technology.
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13 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review provides a succinct introduction to the massification of higher education in Taiwan and France. The reader is also presented with a general overview of how former high school students apply for college entrance and how they achieve their goal. The purpose of this chapter is to present Taiwanese and French educational systems in order to get a better understanding of college admission systems as we know it nowadays.
These countries’ college admission systems may differ in the way that students apply to higher education as well as in the different pathways that are offered to them at the end of senior secondary school. This chapter is divided into three sections and will to provide a complete picture of Taiwanese and France higher education.
2.1 Massification of Higher Education
The massification of higher education, which has emerged from the terms globalization and internationalism, resulted mostly from the evaluation of social/cultural, economic and political trends in the 20th and 21st centuries.33 Challenges and opportunities are emerging from the growth and evolution of these higher education systems which has to evolve to keep fitting our world. Martin Trow, famous contemporary educational sociologists divided the massification of higher education into three stages based on gross enrollment rates: the stage of elite education, the stage of masse education and the stage of universal education.
2.1.1 Massification of Higher Education in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, the lifting of the Martial Law proclaimed on July 14th, 1987 by President Chiang Ching-Kuo (蔣經國) was the starting point of Taiwan’s higher education expansion.
33 Altbach, Philip G., Liz Reisberg, and Laura E. Rumbley. "Tracking a Global Academic Revolution." Change:
The Magazine of Higher Learning 42.2 (2010): 30-39. Web.
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With the end of the authoritarian regime that had lasted four decades (May 19th, 1949 – July 14th, 1987)34, Taiwanese society was able to slowly become more diverse and democratic. The society Taiwanese society was able to slowly diversify and democratice itself in order to meet the demands of economic transformation and cultural expectation by opening the university to the public, this allowed people from different backgrounds to enroll into higher education, and it lead to a shift from an elite centered education to a mass-centered one. In his chapter “Centralization and Decentralization in Educational Governance in Taiwan”35, Professor Fwu Yuan Weng explains that the decentralization of Taiwan’s education is the primary aspect of educational reforms. This includes the ease of government control over textbooks, the empowerment of local education authorities, schools and teachers, the supply of teaching certificates for private senior vocational high schools and public as well as private kindergartens, and the freedom of education market.
Weng F.Y identified two main stages to the decentralization of Taiwanese education:
- “The period of 1987 to 1993 which represents the development of Taiwan consciousness by removing the “Greater China” political ideology from the textbooks, by allowing the production of textbooks by the private sector and by enhancing university’s autonomy”. (Fwu, 2004, p. 39)
- “The period of 1994 to present day. The objectives of this stage is the empowerment of teachers and schools at all levels and local educational authorities, their autonomy, the establishment of a local division of the central educational authority, the implementation of reforms in college and university entrance systems, and the pluralization of the initial teacher training system”. (Fwu, 2004, p. 39)
On April 10th, 1994, Taiwan’s middle class organized a mass demonstration requesting educational reforms. Its main purpose was to remove all the unreasonable controls imposed on education by the authoritarian government and to return to the student-centered
34 Frank S.T. Hsiao, and Mei-chu W. Hsiao. "Economic Liberalization and Development. The Case of Lifting Martial Law in Taiwan." University of Colorado Boulder. N.p., n.d. Web.
35 Ka-Ho, M., & Yuan Weng, F. (2003). Centralization and decentralization: Educational reforms and changing governance in Chinese societies (Vol. 13, CERC Studies in Comparative Education). Hong Kong:
Springer Netherlands. pp 39-58
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educational liberation movement, with a shift from “decentralization” to
“individualization.” 36 Reforms in the educational system in Taiwan were necessary to match the sudden transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. The Taiwanese perception of their identity instantaneously changed social values and ideas, the people questioned Taiwan’s education that used to be bound by China centered ideology and they increased their demands for revisions. The decentralization of education was then justified by four main factors: the public demand for decentralization, increased demand for autonomy in the Taiwanese society, the pursuit of subjectivity, and the parents’ desire to participate in educational matters. (Weng F.Y 2004)
At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education finally extended national fundamental education to twelve years. (in August 2014; the government added three years of non-compulsory education in order to form the 12-year fundamental program.)37
Initiated in 1954, the Joint University Entrance Examination (JUEE) was until 2002 the exclusive factor in higher education’s admittance decision.38 After being the subject of various criticisms denouncing its emphasis on rote memorization which was seen as “a major impediment to creative and independent thinking”, 39 and also because of the increase of demands for educational reforms, this examination was replaced in 2002 by a multi-channel admission process. This multi-channel admission process allows students to gain admittance in higher education by two different ways. The first one is through the personal application process which was introduced in 1998 and expanded in 200040, which requires students to take the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT, which was
36 Tu Cheng-sheng 杜正勝 (2007, January 10). Taiwan’s Educational Reform and the Future of Taiwan.
Lecture presented in London School of Economics and Political Science.
37 "The Republic of China Yearbook 2015." The Republic of China Yearbook 2015. The Executive Yuan, Nov.
2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. Retrieved from
http://yearbook.multimedia.ey.gov.tw/enebook/2015yearbook/index.html
38 Hsieh, P. J. (n.d.). Education in East Asia.
39 Taiwan - Secondary Education - College, School, Junior ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1496/Taiwan-SECONDARY-EDUCATION.html
40 大考中心首頁,ceec, College entrance examination center /. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ceec.edu.tw/
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implemented in 1994), or as before through the examination and placement process by taking the Advanced Subject Test (AST).
2.1.2 Massification of Higher Education in France.
In France, the massification of higher education is a confusing term because of its polysemous aspect. On the one hand, it refers to the massification of the access to higher education during the twentieth century, especially during the post-war and under the effect of the baby boom ( an increase of birth rate from 1945 to 1975)41. “The massification of higher education in France precedes May 1968. It is one of the movement’s ingredients.
The total number of pupils increased so universities’ premises weren’t sufficient anymore and lecture halls were too crowded which leads to a logistical crisis,” explains Jean-Philippe Legois, Director of the Archives Center on The Student Movements (CAARME;
Centre of Animation, Archives and Research on Student Movements) to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. "The period of May 1968 was then an accelerant: the government puts more resources, recruited teachers, built schools, in such a way as to allow the total number of pupils to continue its rise even more sharply in the post-1968" (Jean-Philippe Legois).
This first aspect of the French democratization of higher education involves a democratization in terms of numbers.42 The aim was to facilitate the access to education to a greater number of students. On the other hand, it also means a transformation of the educational institution and the university, in which correlation between the academic qualifications of students and their social origin (known as social determinism) weakens.
The democratization of education also means a wider access to academic knowledge. The democratization of education can then also be interpreted as a desire to reduce inequalities
41 Robert, André D. L’École En France De 1945 à Nos Jours. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires, n.d. Print.
Education in France from 1945 to nowadays.
42 Lazin, F. A., Evans, M., & Jayaram, N. (2010). Higher education and equality of opportunities: Cross-national perspectives. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
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Stéphane Beau, Pierre Merle, and Louis-André Vallet insist on the need to distinguish these two schools up thought. Therefore, we can approach the democratization of higher education in France in both a quantitative and qualitative manner.Higher education in France experienced a significant quantitative growth from the early 1960s until the late 1990s. In the space of thirty years, the number of registered students increased fivefold, from 310,000 students enrolled in higher education in 1960 to over 1,7 million in 1990. 43 This shift from an education for the elite to a mass education has not only been seen in France. It mainly involves developed countries in the twentieth century such as the United States and European countries. In all these countries, this opening couldn’t have been accomplished without any reforms of the educational institution.
In May and June 1968, France experienced the biggest general strike in the history of their social class struggle. With the assimilation of a university crisis, a political crisis, and social crisis, this strike was the subject of different interpretations as Philippe Bénéton, and Jean Touchard detailed in their article “Les interprétations de la crise de Mai-Juin 1968”
(The interpretations of the May-June 1968 crisis)44. They distinguished eight different interpretations of the crisis: an enterprise of subversion, a university crisis, a youth revolt, a spiritual revolt, a crisis of civilization, a social class conflict, a political crisis, and a chain of circumstances.
The interpretation of a university crisis is the one that we are the most interested in, as this lead higher education to various reforms which contributed to the creation of the higher education system as it is known today. Students, parents, teachers, non-teaching personnel and the school management denounced “the inertia of fixed structures subjected
43 "Changes in Higher Education over the Last 50 Years: Growth and Diversification." Higher Education &
Research in France, Facts and Figures 8th Edition. N.p., June 2015. Web. Apr. 2016. Retrieved from:
<http://publication.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/eesr/8EN/EESR8EN_ES_08-changes_in_higher_education_over_the_last_50_years_growth_and_diversification.php>.
44 Beneton, P., & Touchard, J. (1970). Les interprétations de la crise de mai-juin 1968. Rfsp Revue Française De Science Politique, 20(3), 503-544. doi:10.3406/rfsp.1970.393237 The interpretations of the May-June 1968 crisis ; French Review of Political Science.
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to a suffocating centralism”.45 Centralism is perceived as the uniformity, the paralyzing control and the lack of university autonomy in higher education (Bredin 1968). The strike movement (the student revolt) grew from May 3rd to May 13th followed by the social crisis (also known as the general strike) and was quickly tied to a political crisis from May 27th to May 30th 46. The contestation shook France, especially the higher education system. For almost two months France had been in chaos, the country was paralyzed for nearly two weeks starting from May 20th, 1968. There were between seven and nine million strikers, more than half of the employees at the time. More than four million workers have been on strike three weeks and more than two million during a month. It is only at the end of June, that the crisis was finally over, resolved by increasing the wage of strikers and promising students reforms in higher education.
Two major reforms have marked the evolution of higher education: The Orientation Act of Higher Education and The Savary Law. On November 12th, 1968, five months after the May-June crisis, Edgar Faure, Minister of National Education, introduced the
“Orientation Act of Higher Education” that was adopted by the General Assembly and the Senate. It was applied on June 1st, 1969, and its purpose was to remodel the French higher education system. 47 It included both students and teachers’ requests and was built on three innovative principles: participation, autonomy and multidisciplinary.
The Orientation Act of Higher Education also known as the Faure Law and can be summarized in seven points48. The establishment of universities as public scientific, cultural or professional establishments (EPSC, établissement public à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel) , the creation of unity of teaching and research (UER, Unité
45 Bredin, Jean-Denis (7-8 september 1968). L'application de la loi d'orientation de l'enseignement supérieur.
Le Monde. The implementation of the Higher Education orientation act published in the french newspaper Le Monde.
46 Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne - événements de mai 1968. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/événements_de_mai_1968/131140 Larousse Encyclopedia online - events of May 1968. The three crises of the French May, the student revolt, the general strike, the political crisis.
47 Legifrance - Le service public de l'accès au droit. (1968, November 13). Retrieved from https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000693185
The Orientation Act of Higher Education drafted by Edgar Faure
48 Loi Faure. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pde.fr/enseignement-superieur/les-lois-esr/loi-faure Promotion and defense of students, explanation of the orientation act of higher education.
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d’enseignement et de recherche), the creation of the National Council of Higher Education and Research (CNESER, Conseil National de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche), the establishment of a joint management in university governance, the beginning of institutions’ autonomy (administrative, pedagogical and financial independence), the establishment of two new universities in Paris-Dauphine and Vincennes, and the overhaul of some universities (for example the establishment of Paris VI and Paris VII for the University of Sciences in Paris). In brief, it was an effort to answer the significant demand for the joint management of universities by students and faculty members, and its purpose was to resolve difficulties generated by the administrative centralism of universities.
In January 26th, 1984, a second major law was passed, the Savary law, named after the minister in charge of higher education at the time, Alain Savary. In the same line as the Faure law, this law pursued the reform in higher education. While the 1969 law created universities, the Savary law was concerned with all establishments and post-baccalaureate courses. The Savary Law created the concept of "higher education’s public service," a concept that was intended to facilitate matches between different institutions and courses (universities, the grandes écoles, short-term academic courses and so on). This law launched four missions for the university: initial and continuing training, scientific research, the diffusion of the culture and information on sciences and technology, and international cooperation. The Savary Law’s main features include: the opening of higher education through the cooperation of all institutions of higher education under the authority of the Ministry of Education on the basis of departmental, regional, and national institutions; the opening of the university to a wider audience as well as the development of lifelong learning; and finally the expansion of research and participation in the economic development of the country. The 1984 Act then gives the university the mission of
“spreading the culture and information on sciences and technology”49.
49 Minot, Jacques. Les universités après la loi sur l'enseignement supérieur du 26 janvier 1984.Bulletin des bibliothèques de France (BBF), n° 3-4, 1985, p. 337-338. Disponible sur le Web :
<http://bbf.enssib.fr/consulter/bbf-1985-03-0337-011>. ISSN 1292-8399.
“Universities after the January 26th 1984 law on higher education.”
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As defined by the Savary Law, universities in France are divided into scientific, cultural, and professional public institutions. Technological university institutes (IUT) created in 1966 are universities’ internal institutions with the mission to dispense technical and short-term training.
2.2 Education system
This second section seeks to provide an overview and introduction to the educational systems in Taiwan and France.
2.2.1 Taiwanese Education System
Taiwan (臺灣) commonly known as the Republic of China (中華民國) is a sovereign state of East Asia, whose territory now covers the island of Taiwan and other neighboring islands, including Kinmen, Matsu and the Pescadores Islands. As noted on its official website (MOE), all educational programs are regulated by the Ministry of Education which is in charge of national academic and educational administration. This includes education policy planning, legislation, and supervision of educational matters throughout Taiwan. In Taiwan, education is compulsory for girls and boysfrom primary school (6 years old) until junior high school (15 years old) since 1968. Most of the Taiwanese children attend kindergarten from the age of 3 to 6; this is a non-compulsory pre-school education which provides free education to children in financially disadvantaged families. The Taiwanese education system comprises of basic education which is compulsory (twelve years), senior high school (three years) and tertiary education (four-year undergraduate degrees, two years graduate studies and so on). Compulsory education includes primary school and junior high school, while senior secondary education covers senior vocational schools and senior high schools. Finally, higher education includes colleges, universities, institutes of technology as well as graduate schools and postgraduate programs.
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Figure 2.1Taiwanese Education System.
Reprinted from Education in Taiwan by The Ministry of Education Republic of China, 2015-2016, Retrieved from http://www.studyintaiwan.org/album/v4_publications/55fbd7943aa41.pdf Copyright
(August 2015) by Se Hwa Hu.
Twelve
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Taiwan has experienced a rapid expansion of its higher education over the past 25 years,50catching up with its European and American fellows. This expansion is characterized by four several achievements: the increase of enrollments into tertiary education, the implementation of a multi-channel process which offers all students with equal opportunity to gain admittance into college, the enhancement of university administration and autonomy, and a significant decrease of pressure to attend tertiary education.51 All of these achievements testify to a successful massification of higher education in Taiwan. According to the MOE 2016 Education Statistical Indicators52, the number of students attending higher education has increased by 4.47% in 38 years and is likely to continue to grow over the next decade. Student numbers in universities increased from 299,414 students in 1976 to 1,092,102 students in 2000, before reaching 1,339,849 in 2014. The table below shows the increase of students enrolled in higher education in Taiwan since 1976.
50 Chuing Prudence Chou. (n.d.). Who benefits from Taiwan’s Mass Higher Education? Singapore: Springer.
Chapter 14. In Shin, Jung Cheol, Postiglione, Gerard A., Huang, Futao (Eds.).Mass Higher Education
Chapter 14. In Shin, Jung Cheol, Postiglione, Gerard A., Huang, Futao (Eds.).Mass Higher Education