University Wants to Revert Back to Junior College|受少子化衝擊 康寧大學擬申請改回專校

Kang-Ning University has decided to apply with the Ministry of Education to revert its status back to a junior college, becoming the first university to be voluntarily demoted in Taiwan. The case highlights a key challenge facing Taiwan's higher education: which is the shortage of students due to low birth rate.


In August 2015, Kang-Ning Junior College of Medical Care and Management merged with Tainan Kang Ning University. In the three years since, the University of Kang-Ning has not been able to recruit enough students for the Tainan campus and it hopes to revert back to a junior college.

Junior college recruitment has always been above 90 percent, but university recruitment has been less than ideal. We decided on this course of action to direct what limited resources we have to areas where we excel.

Kang-Ning's Tainan campus was known as Leader University until 2010 and had a student body of over 5,000 after the merger. Enrollment has fallen below 5,000 since. Over 60 percent of the university's students are five-year junior college students, with less than 30 percent enrolled in university programs. After this year, the Tainan campus's university student population will fall below 400. If the Ministry of Education approves the application, Kang-Ning's nine university departments will stop admitting new students.

(If) the change is made, around 500 students will be affected. We will help them transfer schools. We will also make arrangements at nearby schools or at the Taipei campus for students that want to stay at Kang-Ning.

School officials plan to divert freed educational resources to its junior college program and say an information session will be held for students that need to transfer schools. One student says she was stunned when she heard the news on television.

It's so disrespectful to teachers and students. They should have discussed it with us first before making a public announcement. I've paid the tuition for a university degree, but is my diploma going to have "junior college" stamped on it?

(The school) must activate its internal negotiation mechanisms and supplementary plans first. It then has to convene a school affairs meeting and send the proposal to the university board before submitting the application to the Ministry of Education. We will review the application at that time.

The ministry says there is legal room for schools to change their status but whether the application is ultimately approved depends on how the rights of students and teachers are affected.