University subsidy funding to be decreased

Subsidy funding for universities in the five-year-plan era will shrink by 15% from next year following a report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center that said the plan has failed to meet three intended targets, as well as noting National Taiwan University’s first-ever slide in its world ranking, write Wu Po-hsuan, Rachel Lin and Jake Chung for Taipei Times.

The plan is the second stage of the Road to Top Notch Universities Project that began in 2011, with the Ministry of Education allocating TWD$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) over five years to universities in the hope of boosting research facilities and international reputations. However, with National Taiwan University’s slide from the ‘top 51 to 60’ universities last year to the ‘top 61 to 70’ this year, in accordance with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings published on March 12, and the Budget Center’s discovery of three unmet target indices, the project’s implementation has again been questioned.

Though many university presidents place the blame on lack of funding for higher education, the nation has sunk nearly TWD$100 billion into higher education since the predecessor of the project began in 2006.
Full report on the Taipei Times site