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Turning the tide of university rankings through culturally responsive research

This article explores the impact of globalization and neoliberalism on university rankings in Taiwan and the unexpected consequences of a focus on quantitative metrics. It highlights the challenges faced by academics and calls for a shift towards culturally responsive research.

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Turning the tide of university rankings through culturally responsive research

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  1. Turning the tide of university rankings through culturally responsive research Chuing Prudence Chou (周祝瑛) National Chengchi University (NCCU),Taiwan CRICE, University of Malaya, May 13, 2016

  2. Overview: A Local or Global Phenomenon in Academia? • Taiwan • Country Profile • Historical Context • Significance • Trends • Globalization • Neo-liberalism • World-class University Rakings • National Competitiveness • Policy reform • Academic drift’ • The SSCI Syndrome’ • The Unexpected Consequences • Challenges Today

  3. Taiwan: Country Profile • Population: 23.3 million(2013) • GDP, per capita: $20,930 (#40) (2013) • Literacy rate: 98.04% (2010) • Urbanization: 70% (2010) • Demographics: • 98% Han Chinese • 2% Indigenous

  4. Taiwan: Historical Context -1895 1895-1945 1949-1987 1987- • Qing Dynasty Era • Education primarily for elite • Japanese Colonial Era • Development of modern education system • Japanese language in schools • Republic of China, Martial Law Era • Emphasis on “Chinese” aspects of Taiwanese history and culture • Republic of China, Democratic Era • Education increasingly “Taiwanese” • Still primarily centralized

  5. Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功) landing in Taiwan in 1662

  6. Taipei, 1960s Source: taipics.com

  7. Taipei, early 1980s Source: taipics.com

  8. Taipei, 2010s

  9. Taipei MRT, 2010s

  10. Blue Tearsin Matsu , Taiwan : This Stunning Scene Seems Too Beautiful to Be Real

  11. Why Taiwan’s higher education matters? • Globally • The second highest higher education admission rate (70%) in the world • Model of economic success • Example of impacts of neoliberalism and marketization on HE • Locally • Rapid university expansion and upcoming closures • Cost-efficient university model • Increasing cross-strait exchanges between China andTaiwan

  12. What tide has impacted Taiwan’s academia? • Neoliberal turn since 1990s. • Expansion of higher education systems. • Drive for ‘global excellence.’ • Desire to boost national competitiveness.

  13. Macro-effects – Policy reform • Expansion (“massification”) of Higher Education systems. • Private sector expansion plays significant role. • Public funding suffers relative decline • Greater requirement for transparency and accountability in funding allocation. • Increased emphasis on world-class university rankings (ARWU, QS, The Times Higher Education, etc.)

  14. Micro-effects – ‘Academic drift’ • University Human Resource(HR) policies amended to enhance research output. • Rely on quantitative metrics, rewarding high outputs. (esp. journal publication) • Hiring, probation, promotion and rewards all depend on journal publication and journal ‘impact factors.’ • Academic career structure has geared toward research publication record. • Academics increasingly select mainstream research topics to increase acceptance rate rather than social relevancy • Other areas such as book publication and teaching are neglected.

  15. Micro-effects – academic drift (cont.) • Effects are not consistent across academic disciplines. • Staff with quantitative backgrounds publish more than qualitative. • Interdisciplinary subjects experience greater hardship placing articles. • Humanities/Social Sciences research forced away from ‘local’ norms and topics more than physical sciences/engineering. • Faculty with excellent teaching performance cannot succeed in academic promotion without research output – ‘publish or perish’.

  16. Micro-effects – academic drift (cont.) • Institutions experience greater disparity in resources between elite and non-elite universities. • Non-elite (esp. private) universities whose students mostly from lower SES rely more heavily on tuition fee incomes.

  17. Origin of the SSCI Syndrome • University expansion of Taiwan’s higher education system since 1990s • the maintenance of quality has become a key concern. • In 2005, the Ministry of Education initiated Program for Promoting Academic Excellence in Universities with an aim for the Top University and Elite Research Center Development Plan. • Establish a formal university evaluation policy for public funding allocation to improve univ. competitiveness and international visibility of Taiwan’s top universities.

  18. The SSCI Syndrome • University evaluation depended on Research performance in terms of number of articles published in SCI, SSCI, EI and A&HCI indexed journals, as well as citation rates and associated impact factors. • Evaluation has taken on a highly quantitative dimension since 2005.

  19. The unexpected consequences:Apple VS. Banana

  20. Unexpected Result… • Local relevance of research called into question. • ‘Public intellectual’ role diminishing. • Themes selected are ‘global’ for publication reasons. • ‘Global audience’ is, in effect, journal editors – ‘gatekeeper effect.’ • Publication in English less accessible for local audiences. • English language writing ability now acts as proxy measure for academic merit in non-English-speaking academic communities.

  21. Gender Equity under the ‘SSCI Syndrome’ in Taiwan • The new system of rewards based on journal publication has crippled the status of female faculty in Taiwan since 2005. • Junior female faculty in social sciences and humanity encounter even more barriers in promotion and publication. • More gender disparity among ‘elite’ universities.

  22. New Gender Discrepancy – Academic positions • 162 colleges and universities in Taiwan, only 14 headed by female presidents (2016) • Percentage of female faculty at universities or colleges only slowly increasing (2007, 34.14%; 2014, 35.21%)

  23. Winners take all effect • Women concentrated in lower ranks. • Promotion prospects limited by: • Social expectations on wives/mothers. • Limited opportunity to network internationally as a result. • “One of my colleagues considered refusing a promotion because she felt her husband would be angry with her for being away from the home too much.”

  24. Local responses: Online petition for collective action, November 2010 • Questioning truly ‘global’ nature of indicators. • Petition government for re-evaluation of performance criteria. • More than 2000 academics in Taiwan endorsed the petition calling on government to: • establish alternative approaches to academic evaluation • find ways to properly tap into faculty academic productive capacity according to discipline and specialty. • https://www.sensepublishers.com/media/1792-the-ssci-syndrome-in-higher-education.pdf and http://chiuphysics.cgu.edu.tw/yun-ju/cguweb/NCCUEdu2010/HomeCosigntory.htm • Major changes have been made to funding policies and evaluation guidelines.

  25. Conclusion • Global trend towards quantitative bibliometric indicators in faculty evaluations. • ‘SSCI Syndrome’ has changed the nature of academic governance. • Social sciences and humanities especially hard-hit.

  26. Thank you.Questions and Comments: Chuing Prudence Chou (周祝瑛) National Chengchi University iaezcpc@gmail.com Website: www3.nccu.edu.tw/~iaezcpc/en/

  27. Chou’s Work… Chou, C. P.; Spangler, J. (eds.). (2016). Chinese Education Models in a Global Age. Singapore: Springer. Chou, C. P. (Ed) (2014). The SSCI Syndrome in Higher Education: A Local or Global Phenomenon. Netherland: Sense Publishers. Chou, C. P.; Ching, Gregory S. (2012). Taiwan Education at the Crossroad: When Globalization Meets Localization. International and Development Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 周祝瑛(2008)。台灣教育怎麼辦?臺北:心理。 周祝瑛(2003)。誰捉弄了台灣改?臺北:心理。

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