Dropouts in the last academic year constituted a record-high 13.38 percent of all university students in Taiwan, the Ministry of Education said.
Of the nation’s 1.24 million university students in the last academic year, 166,562 decided to stop pursuing a university degree temporarily or permanently, ministry data showed.
While Taiwan has seen a steady number of university dropouts over the past several years, the annual dropout rate has been increasing due to a declining number of total students caused by the nation’s falling birthrate, Department of Higher Education Director-General Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said on Monday.
The rates differ between universities, but generally private universities have higher dropout rates than public schools, while night schools have higher rates than day schools, Chu said.
Of the 166,562 dropouts in the last academic year, about 77,000 left temporarily, while those who left permanently cited reasons including job needs (about 19,000), a lack of interest in their major (about 11,000), poor grades (about 5,500) and financial difficulties (about 3,700), he said.
Sickness, compulsory military service, childcare and pregnancy were other reasons, he added.
The ministry is to launch measures allowing students to take more interdepartmental courses to cater to different learning needs, as well as provide scholarships for those with financial difficulties, Chu said.
The Joint Board of College Recruitment Commission said that a new curriculum in the 12-year national education program and a revamped university admissions system have helped match students with their fields of interest.
National Chung Hsing University professor Wu Tung-hsing (武東星) called on universities to draft more flexible course regulations for first-year students.
Universities allowing students to dabble in different academic fields without requiring them to extend their education by an additional year or two could benefit those who find themselves uninterested in their major, Wu said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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