Toward the end of the 20th century, university numbers grew sharply as higher education became subject to the forces of the marketplace. Competition between universities around the world is now intense. In this highly-competitive educational atmosphere, it is crucial that universities maintain high educational standards. To monitor these standards, eight years ago TKU commissioned Dr. Angela Hou, the Director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Resources Center at Fu Jen University, to research, rate, and rank the academic vital signs of every college and university in Taiwan. Two additional items were added to this year’s analysis: student’s class attendance and rate of graduation.

The results showed that TKU improved from its previous year’s performance, with an overall placing of 32nd out of the 97 comprehensive universities evaluated. In terms of academic reputation, TKU ranked 20th. It came 3rd in the category “student registration numbers” and 7th in the category “proportion of foreign teachers employed”. Dr. Hou observed that internationalization is still TKU’s most notable strength. Marked improvements have also been exhibited in the quality of TKU’s teaching staff.

However, Dr. Hou added, to obtain an even higher placing in the future, TKU may start by placing a stronger emphasis on research findings, adjusting the current proportion of undergraduate and postgraduate students, and enhancing teaching-based and general financial resources.