Excellence vs. Equity: How Taiwan Higher Education is Caught in a Trap for ‘World Class’ Status

Abstract

Globalization has affected many areas of human endeavor, and education has not been exempt. The global higher education sector is defined by issues of prestige, which has led to the formulation of various ranking systems acting as measures of ‘global excellence.’ The spread of these rankings and the uses they are put to in national and international prestige contests have meant that key questions around the global relevance of rankings methodologies have received less attention than their outputs. Governments have embraced them as a means of quantifying ‘progress’ and universities themselves have adopted strategies to enhance their positions. These often come with unintended consequences, at the expense of academic endeavor. This chapter examines the context of Taiwan’s university rankings, the effects of the pursuit of ‘global excellence’ and ‘local equity’ on academic endeavor, and the growing disquiet within the academic community over obsessive pursuit of ‘world-class status.’