Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation

Council of Taiwan

Press Release

Release of “College Navigator in Taiwan” by Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan

October 21, 2009

“College Navigator in Taiwan” produced by Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) will be released on Oct. 21, 2009. The College Navigator in Taiwan is the first personalized college search engine created in Taiwan as well as the rest of Asia. It will guide prospective college students from Taiwan and other countries to select Taiwan colleges using a highly developed web-based interactive step-by-step process.

As a quality assurance agency, HEEACT plays the major role of publishing transparent information about Taiwan colleges and universities so that students make well-informed choices in selecting where to go to study. Since early 2008, HEEACT started to assemble a research team to conduct a 2-year pilot study about setting up a new college search engine in order to help thousands of students and families learn about Taiwan colleges and universities and select the most suitable school to study. That research team has created the new interactive system known as “College Navigator in Taiwan” located at: (http://cnt.heeact.edu.tw/). “College Navigator in Taiwan” successfully offers local and international users information about nearly 69 4-year Taiwan comprehensive colleges and universities evaluated by HEEACT in an easy-to-use format.

The ideas underlying the ‘College Navigator in Taiwan” launched by HEEACT are based on the evolution of higher education expansion and internationalization. The system used to develop the College Navigator in Taiwan follows the international standards for collecting and analyzing data known as the Berlin Principles. College Navigator in Taiwan is a type of non-traditional, consumer-oriented personalized system, which provides prospective students information on colleges without relying on pre-determined academic rankings. Generally speaking, College Navigator in Taiwan respects users’ needs and values in the selection of academic indicators and weightings through a web-based interactive platform. The goal of this state of the art information system is to lead to a match between the student and the institution or program in which they are most interested in.

College Navigator in Taiwan uses a step by step process that allows users to pick from more than 11 criteria, 24 academic indicators and 16 general information data points. The criteria in the model listed below include key factors such as an academic survey, student selectivity, faculty, library, research output, teaching quality and international outlook. The number and content of the indicators were determined by focus groups which were held in July and August, 2008.

College Navigator in Taiwan users will be given a certain amount of autonomy over selection of indicators and weightings. This means that they are able to select the indicators within criteria and weight each one themselves. Users can also select the Taiwan institutions that they are interested in by region, type, size and program to compare them to each other. In addition, more detailed information on Taiwan universities such as founding year, mission, and total enrollment, number of programs, and website, room and board, tuition, is listed for user’s reference as part of each customized search.

College Navigator in Taiwan is published in both Chinese and English. Yet, slightly different contents are provided in both versions due to the different needs of Taiwan versus international students, such as the application process and what it’s like to study in Taiwan as an international student. All data were collected data through three ways, academic survey, government databases and directly from the institutions themselves.

To facilitate users understanding of ranking results, each indicator is grouped into 4 categories;

1. Top Group (green upward arrow, the indicator is in the top 30% of all institutions)

2. Middle Group (yellow sideward arrow, the indicator is between 31% and 69% of all institutions)

3. Final Group (pink downward arrow, the indicator is in the bottom 30% of all institutions)

4. Unranked Group (data are not found in the independent database)

“College Navigator in Taiwan” makes no attempt to assign fixed weights to indicators and to arbitrarily create ordinal ranks. This means that the “College Navigator in Taiwan” has responded to the latest trends of internationalization in higher education and respects the personal needs of each user according to the Berlin Principles. In the future, HEEACT will invite more and more college and universities in Taiwan and in Asia to join “College Navigator in Taiwan” to share their information to all prospective students worldwide.

Table 1 Model of Criteria

Tier	Content	Number
Criteria	academic survey, student selectivity, student demographics, faculty, library acquisitions, research output, teaching quality, international outlook, graduation rate etc.	11
Indicator	enrollment rate, proportion of graduate students, graduation rate, proportion of faculty members above assistant professors, proportion of professors with a highest degree, proportion of full-time faculty, faculty-student ratio, total expenditure per student, number of articles published in SCI/ SSCI/ AHCI per faculty, National Science Foundation grants per faculty, proportion of international students, proportion of international faculty, library expenditure per student, etc.	24
Preference	location, size, type, program/ discipline, etc.	5
General information	history, enrollment, number of programs, and website, room and board, student service, scholarship, tuition etc.	16

Source: author

Table 2 Definition of Criteria and Indicators

Criteria	Indicators	Definition
Peer assessment	Academic survey	Opinions of college presidents, vice presidents and deans to judge a school’s academic performance.
Student selectivity	Enrollment rate	Number of freshmen enrolled at the school／number of freshmen approved by ministry of education for that school
	Number of national academic awards earned by students within last 3 years	Number of students who participated in NSC projects and Number of research awards to students by NSC
Student demographics	Proportion of graduate students enrolled	Number of graduate students enrolled／total enrollment
Teaching quality	Faculty-student ratio	Number of full-time equivalent faculty／number of FTE students
Faculty resources	Proportion of full-time faculty	Number of full-time faculty／number of full–time and part-time equivalent faculty
	Proportion of professors with Ph.Ds	Number of full-time faculty with Ph.Ds／number of full-time faculty
	Proportion of faculty members above assistant professor	Number of assistant professors, associate professors, and professors／full-time faculty
	National Academy membership	Number of NSC distinguished scholars, Academicians of Academia Sinica and National lectures in the school’s faculty
Research output	Number of articles published in SCI/ SSCI/ AHCI per faculty	Number of articles published in SCI/ SSCI/ AHCI / number of full-time equivalent faculty
	Number of articles published in SSCI/ per faculty	Number of articles published in SSCI／number of full-time equivalent faculty
	Number of articles published in SCI/ per faculty	Number of articles published in SCI / number of full-time equivalent faculty
	Number of articles published in AHCI per faculty	Number of articles published in AHCI / number of full-time equivalent faculty
Research grants	Citations in SCI/ SSCI /AH&CI per faculty	Number of citations／number of full-time equivalent faculty
	Total amount of National Science Council grants by faculty	Amount of NSC grants received by full-time equivalent faculty
	Total amount of National Science Council grants in sciences	Amount of NSC grants in received in sciences and medicine fields by full-time equivalent faculty
	Total Amount of National Science Council grants in Social Sciences and Humanities	Amount of NSC in received in social sciences and humanities fields by full-time equivalent faculty
	Number of National Science Council projects per faculty	Total number of NSC projects／number of full-time-equivalent faculty
	Number of National Science Council projects in sciences per faculty	Number of NSC projects in sciences and medicine fields／number of full-time-equivalent faculty
Library	Number of National Science Council projects in social sciences and humanities per faculty	Number of NSC projects in social sciences and humanities／number of full-time-equivalent faculty
	Number of library holdings per full-time-equivalent student	Total library holdings／number of full-time-equivalent students
Financial resources Internationalization	Educational expenditures per student	Total education expenses/total full-time equivalent enrollment
	Proportion of international students	Number of international students / number of full-time-equivalent students
Graduation Rate	Proportion of international faculty	Number of international faculty /number of full-time equivalent faculty

Source: author

Table 3 Preference and General Information of the CNT

Preference	Location	north／central／south／east
	Size	above 15000/ 10000~14999/ 5000~9999/ below 4999
	Type	public / private
	Field /Program	Comprehensive (Medical School) Humanities & social sciences Sciences Biomedicine Engineering & IT
General information	History	Establishing year
	Address	Map and address
	Website	Website
	Application	Procedures for school application
	Evaluation & accreditation	Accredited status / MOE Research Project / MOE Teaching Excellence Project
	Student enrollment	undergraduate programs / graduate programs and Doctoral programs
	Programs and disciplines	Number of undergraduate programs / graduate programs and Doctoral programs
	Room and Board	Number of beds and price
	Student club	Type and number
	Scholarship	Scholarship / total education expenses
	Tuition	Information about programs
	Alumni	Number of Outstanding Alumni

Dr. Angela Yung-Chi Hou

Researcher, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan

Associate Professor, Fu Jen Catholic University