Cross-border educational collaboration between Taiwan and China: the implications for educational governance

Abstract

Taiwan has undertaken a series of cross-border collaboration with China for the past two decades. This paper aims to investigate the Taiwanese approach and policies of educational collaboration with China in a globalized context, where international competitiveness has become a great concern for most countries. It also examines how the Taiwanese government's cross-border educational collaboration will affect the flow of human capital across the Taiwan Strait and reflect upon the challenges of educational governance in Taiwan. It is argued that the rhetorical purposes stated by government may not be entirely realized due to the great concerns of national security, military threat, and employment issues among the public in Taiwan. These make overarching collaboration with China not possible at this stage. The lingering effects of this hesitation not only create an apartheid-type system among non-local students, but might also lead to an undesirable outcome of the outflow of human capital to China. In order to maintain effective collaboration with China, a wide range of governance challenges have been raised and need to be addressed.

Keywords:

• transnational higher education
• cross-border education
• educational collaboration
• human capital
• governance reform

Notes

1. As such, Taiwan can indirectly interact with China through Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu islands based on restricted links of mail, transportation and trade.