Relationship between ‘employability’ and ‘higher education’ from global ranker and accreditor’s perspectives—does a gap exist between institutional policy making and implementation in taiwan higher education?

ABSTRACT

Driven by global rankings and national quality assurance (QA) initiatives, Taiwan’s higher education institutions were encouraged to develop strategic plans and initiatives, in order to improve graduate student employability. The purpose of this study is to explore the polices and strategies adopted by Taiwanese higher education institutions, with a particular focus on ‘employability’, in terms of standards and indicators of QS ranking and Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) programme accreditation in 2017. This paper analysed strategic plans and self-assessments reports from 20 Taiwanese universities in order to determine the impact of ranking and QA on employability initiatives and associated implications for institutional policy. The study presents three major findings. First, the emergence of global ranking and national quality assurance systems pressured Taiwanese universities to situate several employability initiatives within their institutional strategic plans. Second, Taiwanese universities applied varying approaches to the integration of graduate employability into institutional policies and strategic plans, according to ranking and national accreditation standards. Third, the gap between institutional policy making and actual implementation of employability initiatives exists in the Taiwanese context.

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• global ranking
• national accreditation
• quality assurance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Angela Yung Chi Hou

Angela Yung Ch Hou is Professor of Department of Education at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. She also serves as Associate Dean of College of Education.

Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill is Associate Professor of Faculty of Education at British University in Dubai

Dewin Justiniano

Dewin Justiniano is the Research coordinator of office of Administration and Research at Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan

Connie Yang

Can Yang is the PhD student of National Chengchi University , Taiwan and  lecturer  of Jinhua Polytechnic, ChinaQuan Gong is the PhD student of National Chengchu University, Taiwan and lecturer of Wenzhou University, China

Quan Gong

Quan Gong is the PhD student of National Chengchu University, Taiwan and lecturer of Wenzhou University, China