| Taiwan has implemented a policy called "the University Teaching Excellence Project" since2004. This project hopes to subsidize about30%to40%universities through a competitive incentive mechanism. These universities would use the subsidy to make overall systemic innovation and become a model of teaching excellence. This is the first policy that focuses on improving teaching quality in Taiwan’s higher education since the21st century.After eight years of policy-implementation, the effect has begun to emerge. The awareness of improving the higher education quality is strengthening, the teaching atmosphere has gradually spread on campus.This study will explore the policy ideas and specific initiatives. It will provide a great reference value for Mainland China in continuing to promote the similar policy called "Undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project".This study will make a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of "the University Teaching Excellence Project" through document analysis and interview survey. To start with, the background and design ideas of the policy are explored. Secondly, concrete progress in the implementation of the policy is approached. Thirdly, policy content analysis, process analysis, value analysis and effect analysis are made one by one from the perspective of education policy studies. At last, the profound revelation of the policy is concluded.The main conclusions are: 1."The University Teaching Excellence Project" is a problem-oriented policy. The decline in the quality of university teaching is the root cause of the policy-making. At the same time, to contend with the project "Developing World-class Colleges and Top Research Centers" which pursuing "academic excellence" of higher education and correct policy biases of "scientific research over teaching" is the direct cause of the policy-making.2. Subsidized universities have sound implementation framework:the "executive system" as the core, the "support system" as the assistant, and "assessment system" as the guarantee. Moreover, they have clear implementation strategies:curriculum, teachers’teaching, students’learning as three main lines of the reform, while teaching resources and quality assurance are supportive factors.3. The centers for teaching and learning development and the regional teaching resource centers are products of the policy. The center for teaching and learning development in every university plays the role of base point of policy implementation, while regional teaching resource centers play the role of nodes of collaborative development.4. The value orientation of "the University Teaching Excellence Project" mainly behaves in three aspects:the value choice, the interests choice and the power choice. In the value choice between teaching and research, the policy prefers strengthening the core value of "teaching" and creating teaching excellence model. In the interests choice between fairness and efficiency, the policy prefers balancing multiple main interests conflicts and pursuing the unity of fairness and efficiency. In the power choice between freedom and regulation, the policy prefers focusing on performance evaluation and quality control, and strengthening the role of government oversight and regulations.5."The University Teaching Excellence Project" has mainly achieved three results:mechanism related to teaching improvement has been established already and improved gradually; regional resources integration and sharing mechanism has been basically established and running well; teaching as the core values has been strengthened and more university leaders begin to rethink the importance of teaching. However, university leaders’awareness on teaching sustainable management is not strong enough, and the thick atmosphere of devotion into teaching for teachers and devotion into learning for students has not formed extensively on campus. |
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