While many Taiwanese are complaining about the record-high college admittance and the proliferation of universities, few really come up with a good solution to this challenging issue. Professor Chou’s article When More Education Means Less published in today’s Taipei Times is worth reading. For parents and students, she said,

Apart from calling for better quality education, perhaps parents and students should weigh up the relative opportunities and costs of going to college. All the more so considering that many people apply for student loans to attend private universities, saddling themselves with a heavy debt upon graduation. Such a financial burden can derail a person’s plans for work, marriage, buying a home and having children. So shouldn’t we be looking at alternatives to university? Otherwise, with a diploma in hand but no vocational or survival skills, many college graduates will find it hard to gain a foothold in society.

For the government and university officials, she recommended,

the government should not just encourage them to close. They should consider other options, including restructuring or mergers and the legal framework governing higher education should be relaxed. Above all, avenues for working adults to engage in continuing education are limited, and the vocational qualification system has not been properly implemented. Since many adults have no way to pursue continuing education, people have no option but to enter higher education and get their qualifications when they are young, rather than gaining work skills first and going to college later.