CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4.3 The comparative perspective on China and Taiwan’s higher education development
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Ka Ho Mok has long been observing the East Asia’s HE development. In his numerous publications, I have selected several articles that are mostly related to the theme of this study. In both his articles of Riding over socialism and global capitalism:
changing education governance and social policy paradigms in post-Mao China’
(2005a), and Globalisation and educational restructuring: universities merging and changing governance in China (2005b), Mok stated that even though there seems to be the phenomenon of ‘diminishing role of the state’ in the forces of globalisation, China does not seem to ‘diminish’ itself in such a flow. He argued that ‘globalisation may not necessary bring about the end of the state’ (Mok 2005a, p. 82). On the contrary, the findings in his studies explicated that China’s party state had achieved its policy goals more effectively by searching additional recourses and involving non-state actors in running the public sector. The non-state, as a strong one, ‘tactically makes use of the market and other non-state actors/sectors as policy instrument to reduce the burden of the state in education financing and provision, the adoption of such policy may well strengthen state capacity’ (Mok 2005b, p. 237).
2.4.3 The comparative perspective on China and Taiwan’s higher education development
Research on the comparative perspective of China and Taiwan’s higher education is quite limited among several scholars in Taiwan in the 1990s. Chou32 (1999) did a comparative study on China’s and Taiwan’s higher education system. It is quite a preliminary study of work in higher education studies comparing Taiwan and China after the lift of Martial Law.
Law (1995) uses the traditional Chinese culture and monarchy context to discuss the cross-strait higher education reform and development in his article of The role of the state in higher education reform: Mainland China and Taiwan. In the article of Fortress sate, cultural Continuities and economic change: higher education in mainland China and Taiwan, he furthered labelling the two nation-states as ‘fortress state’ between 1949-1995 and managed to explain how these two states were affected by both domestic and international factors (Law, 1996). Knowing that the theories of development and education, namely theories of educational convergence, modernisation and dependency and world systems analysis are not sufficient in
32周祝瑛（1999）。大陸高等教育問題研究─兼論台灣相關課題，臺北市：師大書苑。
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explaining the continuous struggling for a balance between the preservation of cultural and national identity between 1949-1995, Law proposed a theory to explain the tension between the cultural and economic tasks of higher education in mainland China and Taiwan. He concluded that higher education systems of Mainland China and Taiwan are not arenas for cultural and economic imperialism by industrialised countries. Unlike Western countries, the states of Mainland China and Taiwan have deemed the socio-political task of HE to be as important as economic considerations over the last four decades. It is worthy of further exploring whether such socio-political task of HE is continuously carried on after year 1995 to-date.
In the more recent work, Mok (2003) examines the higher education reforms and restructuring in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China, with particular reference to the issues related to globalisation of decentralisation and marketisation in higher education. He concludes that globalisation practices in higher education should not be analysed in terms of a one-dimensional movement from ‘the state’ to ‘the market’.
Instead, in the study of such comparison work, one must ‘contextually analyse the interaction between a range of factors that are critical in shaping the local context and the impetus for changes driven by global trends’ (Mok 2003, p.126-127).
Mok and Chan (2008) critically examine major policies and strategies employed by governments in Mainland China and Taiwan in benchmarking both the states’ HEIs with world‐class universities. Changes taking place in the university governance in these two states clearly suggest significant transformations in the regulatory regime whereby broader regulatory objectives are directed to promote economic competitiveness and global ranking. The research suggests that new modes of higher educational governance are emerging in China and Taiwan, characterised by evolving features of ‘regulatory regionalism’.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In this section, concepts that are related this study are displayed and explained. The main purpose of this chapter is to facilitate the readers to understand the research design and analysis of framework in this study.
3.1CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 3.1.1 State and university
3.1.1.1 Internationalisation in Higher Education
In the past decades, international activities in higher education dramatically increase. These activities not only can be seen as the influences in the process of globalisation, but also can be regarded as the ‘results’ of certain higher education policies in many countries in East Asia. Particularly in Taiwan and Mainland China, a huge amount of fund has been allocated by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in order to enhance ‘the degree of internationalisation’ for the country. The below tables (Table 3.1, 3.2) list out the projects which are formed as higher education (HE) policies in both Taiwan and China respectively. From the name of these projects, it is already clear that either in Taiwan or in China, policies are formulated in attempt to achieve the goal to ‘internationalise’ HE institutions (HEIs).
Table 3. 1 Taiwan Government’s Projects on Higher Education Internationalisation
Name of Projects Year Amount
Programme for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities
《大學學術卓越發展計畫》
1st Round
2nd Round
1998-2004
2000-2006
NT$2.1 billion NT$4.3 billion Plan to Enhance University Global Competitiveness
《提昇大學國際競爭力計畫》
2002 NT$383
million
Five Years 50 Billion Project Phase 1: 2006-2007 NT$50
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Plan to Develop First-class Universities and Top-level Research Centres33 , Phase 134《第一期五年五百億計畫之發展國際一流大學 及頂尖研究中心計畫：第一梯次》
billion
Five Years 50 Billion Project Phase 1:
Plan to Develop First-class Universities and Top-level Research Centres, Phase 2 《第一期五年五百億計畫之發展國際一流大學及頂尖研究中 心計畫：第二梯次》
2008-2010
Phase 2: Five Years 50 Billion Project Phase 2, also renamed as Plan to March Towards Top Universities35
《第二期五年五百億計畫, also renamed as 邁向頂尖大學計畫》
Action Plan of Education Promotion for 21st Century《面向 21 世紀教育振興行動計 劃》
1998-2004
Project 985 Phase 2
2003-2007 Boosting Education Action Plan《2003—2007 年教育振興行動計劃》
2004-2007
98/5 Project Phase 3
An Opinion (From the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance) on the issue of speeding up to be world top university and building high quality universities.
《教育部、財政部關於加快推進世界一流大學和高水準大學建設的意見》
2010-2020
Source: MOE, China: Introduction to 98/5 Project.38
37 Official website of ‘Plan to March Towards Top Universities’, MOE of Taiwan, 2014a http://140.113.40.88/edutop/index_3.php
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The emergence of internationalisation in HE can be observed by the increase numbers of the activities include students or faculty mobility (the movement of students, faculty, researchers and non-academic staff); cross-border education (‘sister’
institutions of existing universities, branch or satellite campuses of parent institutions, collaborative arrangements). Also, internationalisation in HE can be observed by the trend of world class university aspiration, education for global engagement, the implement of the importance of English in curriculum and notable cooperative networking around the world (Rumbley, Altbach and Reisberg 2012).
3.1.1.2 State Capacity/Autonomy
As was discussed in literature review that ‘the state’ is clearly different from ‘the government’ itself. Indeed, the complexity of modern state cannot be reduced to the notion of ‘the government’ only and the examination of state capabilities of the state can possibly be exercised through state apparatuses. Althusser explains that state apparatus not only mean the specialised apparatus whose existence and necessity in relation to the requirements of legal practices (i.e. the police, the courts, the prisons) but also those who indirectly intervenes as a supplementary repressive force (i.e. the army), the head of state, the government and bureaucratic administration (Althusser 1972).
In this study, the state capabilities refer to the degree of state capacity to take autonomous actions in response to globalisation through higher education (HE) internationalisation. When the state has higher capacity, it can carry out state policy preference and ultimately to fulfil the state will and such a state can be categorised as having high autonomy in actions (Nordlinger 1981; Krasner 1984; Skocpol 1985;
Migdal 1988). It will be a danger to assume states in all times and places have had similar potential or abilities to achieve the state’s goal/to fulfil a state will because even in the similar culture zone, states develop in diverse angles (Migdal 1988).39Under such a proposition, there is a need to examine state capabilities in the same culture zone while reviewing/evaluating/planning for internationalisation of HE.
In this study, internationalisation of HE in Taiwan and Mainland China are the ‘cases’
that are looked at in the examination of state capabilities.
38 The brief introduction of 98/5 project is retrieved from the website of MOE, China:
http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s6183/201112/128828.html
39Concrete evidence has been shown in the book of Strong Societies and Weak States: state-society relations and state capabilities in the Third World, written by J. S. Migdal, 1988.
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Additionally, the state apparatuses that are mostly examined are MOEs, other related government administration sectors and HEIs administration in both Taiwan and mainland China. Even though the criteria to examine state capabilities examination in this study seem to be limited only to HE’s internationalisation policy-making, policy-implementation, it is repeatedly stated in most literature that the study of internationalisation of HE should include political, economic and social factors/actors and therefore the examination and analysis in this study are multi-faceted.
3.1.1.3 University Ability/Autonomy
The concept of university autonomy is sometimes used in this study. University autonomy can be looked at in various perspectives. For instance, in the report provided by European University Association (EUA) suggests that university ability includes organisational autonomy, financial autonomy, staffing autonomy and academic autonomy (Estermann and Nokkala 2009). 40 University autonomy sometimes referred in this study is analysed as a dependent variable in the examination of state effects to HE development in internationalisation. University autonomy is displayed and implied by how HEIs take actions to be internationalised whether in a stronger or weaker state.
3.1.1.4 Internationalisation Actors
Since this study is in attempt to analyse internationalisation of HE by adopting state-centre approach, the study focuses mainly on the national-level rationales and these rationales are adopted as the multi-criteria indicators in analysis when examining the ‘origins’, ‘outcomes’ as well as ‘implementation processes’ of internationalisation both in Taiwan and mainland China.
In order to make clearer illustrations on the level of actors, the type of actors and the role of actors in HE’s internationalisation process, Knight provides the following table to show the diverse actors and complex relations that are involved in the current internationalisation trend among countries.
40 The report of ‘University Autonomy in Europe I’ is written by T. Estermann and T. Nokkala funded by EUA.
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Levels of Actors Types of Actors Role of Actors
National
The above table shows that actors in HE internationalisation represent a diversity of groups, not only educational institutions and providers themselves, but also government departments, agencies, non-governmental sectors as well as private and public foundations (Knight 2012). In other words, if one wishes to examine the degree of internationalisation, the policy formation and implementation of internationalisation, one should not neglect both actors in the governmental sectors as well as those non-governmental or professional associations. This table provided by Knight helps forming the interviewee groups at different levels in this study (See Appendix II).