First-year university enrolment on steep decline – Ministry

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has projected that first-year university enrolment will fall from 270,000 in 2015 to just 173,000 in 2028 and decline further to 146,000 by 2040, reports Focus Taiwan CNA English News.

In a report released Thursday, the MOE said enrolment dipped during the 2017 academic year, when the ‘Year of the Tiger’ effect – namely, a drop in births in 1998 during this Chinese zodiac year due to traditional cultural beliefs – reduced the number of freshmen to 241,000. A slight recovery of 7,000 students came in 2018 due to the ‘Year of the Dragon’ effect – an increase in births in 2000 due to positive associations with this Chinese zodiac year – but the downward trend soon resumed.

The ministry forecast that numbers will rebound in 2030 to 209,000, spurred again by a Year of the Dragon marriage and childbirth boom and a birth encouragement policy implemented in 2011.
Full report on the Focus Taiwan site