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By Wen Shun-te 溫順德
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Out of 64 participating universities in this year’s Stars Program — through which schools directly recommend their top students to universities for admission — only 19 filled their admissions quotas. There were 922 vacancies, down more than 200 from last year; top universities had 37 unfilled places, 40 fewer than last year. The original purpose of the Stars Program was to expand admissions to a wider range of students. However, certain departments at elite universities that failed to meet their admissions quotas are not improving.
Vacancies at top universities are linked to students’ program preferences on their applications, but inappropriate admission requirements set by departments are ultimately the key factor in the low participation.
This year, seven departments at National Taiwan University (NTU) did not meet their admission quotas. National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) had four vacancies across two departments, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) had 14 vacancies across four departments.
The departments set their own requirements for admission based on students’ General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) results. Scores in the top 12 and 25 percentiles are known as top-level and high-level respectively.
NTU’s horticulture and entomology departments require high-level scores across Chinese, English and mathematics, while five other departments require at least one top-level score. NTHU’s computer science department requires three top-level scores and one high-level score, while the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management requires one top and three high-level scores. Several NYCU departments require at least one top and two high-level scores.
As each school can only nominate two students per subject track, and high-performing students have many program options available to them, programs further down their preferences lists tend to end up with vacancies. Making pragmatic adjustments to general admission thresholds could help to reduce these vacancies.
Differences in how students are ranked and allocated to departments under the Stars Program, and which GSAT subjects are considered by departments in their selection process affect admission distributions. Under the 108 curriculum guidelines rolled out in 2019, GSAT mathematics was split into two tracks.
Most business-related programs at top universities require applicants to have the more advanced Math A with high or top-level results. However, top achievers in Math A are more likely to apply to science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs. As the number of students meeting the requirements falls, business schools struggle to reach their quotas.
Each of the six programs at the NTU College of Management requires Math A, four of which set an entrance requirement of top-level grades. With fewer students meeting those requirements, vacancies remain in the programs, while the remaining four only filled their quotas after a second round of admissions. If top universities continue to demand that students have first-rate Math A scores for their business programs, vacancies would be hard to avoid.
Under the 108 curriculum, offering Math A and B as two distinct pathways was meant to give students the opportunity to specialize based on their abilities and fields of interest. However, the new admissions system allows departments to set their own subject requirements.
For students, adding any math subject could increase their number of program options by 800. With business and management schools — particularly at top universities — requiring Math A, the proportion of students taking the higher Math stream has increased to 76 percent, and those taking Math A and B has risen to 46 percent.
Although the curriculum reforms were meant to promote adaptive learning and encourage diverse exploration, the mess of university admissions requirements has rendered the pathways system ineffectual. It goes against the spirit and the adaptive principle of what the 108 curriculum set out to achieve.
The Stars Program has been running for many years, and it provides an excellent pathway for students from rural and smaller public high schools to get to university, helping to address the rural-urban divide and boost local enrollments. However, excessively high GSAT score thresholds and inappropriate subject requirements have resulted in persistent vacancies at top universities. The government must not remain silent on this, and universities cannot be allowed to remain indifferent.
Wen Shun-te is a senior-high school principal.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
