Personalized rankings: a new ranking system for Taiwanese universities / Angela Yung-chi Hou

Because traditional college rankings had many methodological problems a new type of user-based ranking, called “personalized college ranking” was developed in many nations in the late 1990s. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to explore what challenges are involved in the development of current college rankings nationally and globally and how to establish a new type of ranking system. The paper starts by attempting to understand the pitfalls and criticisms of college rankings. Based on the analysis of five major personalized rankings, it outlines strategies and pathways for establishing personalized college rankings in Taiwa

Science mapping in the research of higher education internationalisation from 2013 to 2018 in Asia: publications, regional networking and future trends

Purpose – The advance in higher education in Asian countries is of major interest because it reveals increasing global political and cultural influence in recent years. The review explores the characteristics of publications from 2013–2018 concerned with the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. The study aims to analyse the current trajectory, including the size, growth trends, and regional networking of this domain, with a goal of identifying the influential journals, authors, and documents, as well exploring the thematic structure and topical issues and trends of this domain. Design/methodology/approach – 241 Scopus-indexed documents were selected and reviewed using a quantitative descriptive way. These documents were analysed by VOS viewer software. Findings – The results show the most topical issues and trends concern about “Asian immigration and mobility”, “transnational education”, “international students and acculturation”, and “international branch campuses”. Seven main schools of thought were identified and are clearly explained herein, which provides a baseline for future research for new scholars. Social implications – The present study suggests that trans-regional cooperation is the future of internationalisation in higher education. Asian scholars are recommended to increase cooperation and exchanges with each other, expand channels of contact, further understand and optimise their own advantages, achieve win-win cooperation and make Asia's voice heard in the world in higher education field. Originality/value – This bibliometric review can predict the main trends in higher education internationalisation in the future and encourage implication of interdisciplinary research in higher education internationalisation

Student learning venture overseas in the transnational research partnership – a Taiwan and US PIRE case study

Purpose – Transnational learning has become a mainstream issue in recent years due to the rise of global education. There are many kinds of overseas learning, including degree-seeking, joint/double degree, student exchange, internship, service learning and so on. The scope of learning may involve research, teaching/learning and community service. The purpose of the case study is to investigate how the Taiwanese students participating in an international internship project of the US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) acquire professional knowledge and soft skills, including cross-cultural awareness, interdisciplinary communication, skill development and social networking. It also explores how a joint research project contributes into a collaborative educational program. Design/methodology/approach – To better understand participants' experiences in the PRIE, this study held three focus groups and seven in-depth interviews on the students, faculty members and project managers for data collection. Findings – Three major findings are shown in the study. First, participants agreed that the overall learning experiences in knowledge acquisition or skill development have been positive. Second, participants obviously expressed their greater interests in intercultural interaction with the locals, which did not happen quite often during the internship. Third, the extent of interest in applying for the PIRE deg ree program after the internship program is escalating year by year. Research limitations/implications – More investigation into participants’ social and cultural engagement in similar project will be needed for future research. Practical implications – The results will be implicated into other cross-border education project evaluation. Originality/value – This study manages to investigate the cross-border research initiative from different participants' perspectives and received comprehensive feedbacks

Game of Brains: Examining Researcher Brain Gain and Brain Drain and Research University Policy

We leverage a rich bibliometric dataset on Taiwanese academia to explore scientific migration patterns. We investigate the movement and productivity of 21,051 highly active researchers who served in Taiwanese higher education institutions based on 30 years’ worth of publication and affiliation records from 1991 to 2020. The analysis shows evidence of brain drain in Taiwan since the 2010s, with the U.S. being both the biggest source of inbound researchers to Taiwan and top destination for researchers emigrating from Taiwan. China comes a close second to the U.S. as the top destination for outbound scholars. We also study how Taiwan’s universities recruited talent after the country adopted the 2005 excellence initiative and confirm the converging number of scholars recruited by World Class Universities (WCUs) and non-WCUs as WCUs, surprisingly, exhibit a dramatic decrease in new recruits. Our evidence uncovers that inbound scholars, after their move, are more productive than non-mobile colleagues; however, this effect declines over time. We discuss implications for the study of excellence initiatives and mechanisms of talent circulation that greatly impact research production and research university development

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The Development of a Student Learning Outcomes Based Accreditation Model in Taiwan Higher Education

Student learning is currently a central concern of higher education administration and accreditation. Many institutions, programs and accrediting organizations are hearing similar requests about student learning outcomes from a number of sources: they all want to be able to provide concrete evidence of student academic achievement in higher education and to report on this evidence in a manner that is readily understandable to the public at large. Hence, the public, the higher education community, policy makers and students are increasingly seeking to use such information as an integral part of making judgments about the quality of accredited institutions and programs. The main purpose of the paper is to examine recent educational policy trends that emphasize learning outcomes and quality assurance in many nations and Taiwan higher education and the role that the accrediting agencies play. Finally, the challenges that institutions and accrediting agencies are facing will be stated as a conclusion

Keynote presentation : Challenges, impacts and crisis management on higher education and quality assurance under and after COVID-19 crisis: can Taiwan case be implicated?

Since COVID-19 inevitably caused an educational crisis worldwide, most governments have temporarily closed educational institutions in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. The impacts on higher education include thousands of academic staff and students being suddenly forced to stay at home and learn online, the suspension of international mobility and travel, postponement of institutional entry examinations, and cut or cancelled government funding. These changes affect how universities are measured and student learning outcomes are assessed, in national and international contexts. In addition, a UNESCO survey report shows that most universities have administered examinations remotely via internal or institutional platforms or even postponed the whole academic year. At the same time, they have to apply alternative ways, with adapted methodologies, to assess student learning outcomes. Higher education in Asia and its quality assurance mechanisms have been seriously threatened by virus pandemic in 2020. Most Asian institutions, guided by national authorities, have closed campuses, postponed examination, cancelled all large gatherings such as graduation and enrolment ceremonies, suspended cross-border research projects temporarily, enforced quarantine policy on all incoming international students, etc. Taiwan is one of the places whose campuses remained open normally after the outbreak of COVID-19, but all Taiwan’s universities took actions to ensure campus safety and quality of learning, in alignment with the Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) measures and Ministry of Education (MOE) policy. Therefore, the presentation will focus on how government policies and crisis management impact quality assurance activities and accreditation services in higher education globally as well as in Taiwan

Personalized Rankings: A New Ranking System for Taiwanese Universities

Because traditional college rankings had many methodological problems a new type of user-based ranking, called “personalized college ranking” was developed in many nations in the late 1990s. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to explore what challenges are involved in the development of current college rankings nationally and globally and how to establish a new type of ranking system. The paper starts by attempting to understand the pitfalls and criticisms of college rankings. Based on the analysis of five major personalized rankings, it outlines strategies and pathways for establishing personalized college rankings in Taiwan

Is the Asian quality assurance system for higher education going glonacal? Assessing the impact of three types of program accreditation on Taiwanese universities

[[abstract]]Tertiary education institutions are currently learning to integrate and balance the needs of varying stakeholders, including local students, national governments, and the global market. These three dimensions combine into the concept of a ‘glonacal’ – global + national + local – region of higher education. At the same time, quality assurance influences higher education in terms of policy decisions and processes, putting more emphasis on teaching as a core function of universities, and leading to an increased bureaucratization and heavier administrative workload. Yet, there is little evidence of the consequences of the glonacal approach for the quality of teaching and learning within universities and colleges. The main purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the glonacal quality assurance system of Asian higher education through a case study of the effects of three program accreditations on higher education institutions in Taiwan (Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan [HEEACT], Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International [AACSB International] and Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan [IEET]).[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]電子版[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]GB

Are quality assurance and rankings useful tools to measure 'new' policy issues in higher education? The practices in Europe and Asia

In the last years, ‘new’ policy issues, such as sustainability, have emerged, and old ones, such as social inclusion, have resurfaced on the political and public agendas. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly expected to respond to these ‘new’ challenges. But how are HE systems and HEIs (namely in Europe and Asia) looking at these ‘new’ policy issues and assessing them? This article focuses on what issues are being looked at by two of the most well-known tools or mechanisms used to assess the quality of HE – quality assurance and rankings – and how are these tools dealing with these ‘new’ challenges. This article concludes that the role of the ‘new’ policy issues in the assessment of institutional performance and quality is still very limited. Developing indicators that may be used for accountability purposes or improvement purposes is a major challenge that lies ahead. Facilitating the exchange of ideas, experiences, and knowledge on how to measure performance on the ‘new’ policy issues and on how to use that information in any of the rationale settings seems to be a promising way forward to get the ‘new’ policy issues embedded in quality assurance tool