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Why Do College Students Drop Out in Taiwan?
Posted by Yu Tung, 03.16.2022
In Taiwan, many elders tend to tell their children, “You will have much more free time to hang out after you attend college.” It seems that college students do not have to worry about their academic performance and their future. However, they consider their career planning carefully, and even some students discontinue their campus lives for those practical problems which most people think college students do not care about. According to the latest statistics from our Ministry of Education (2018), a growing number of Taiwanese college students drop out from 2013 to 2018. There are three main reasons that make students drop out of college.
First of all, the majority of those students are afraid of a lack of occupational and social experiences, so a growing number of freshmen in Taiwan drop out for gap year. They usually enter the workplace and become volunteers in the social associations, and those experiences they gained can make them realize which knowledge and abilities are essential in the society and workplace. As a result, their learning objectives are more definite than other students’. In addition, our Ministry of Education has a program that encourages students to gain their job experiences after attending college. The applicants of this program have to drop out for three years; in the meantime, the government will provide them scholarships to help them start a business or find a job. After three years, they can return to school for more advanced knowledge they lack. Consequently, as support is provided by the government, more students will drop out for accumulating practical experiences in the society.
(A poster of the program)
Next, some students’ interests might not be incompatible with their majors. Most Taiwanese students spend much time focusing on their academic performances when they study in secondary school, so they do not have enough time to explore their ambitions towards their future careers and interests then. Until they have finished their college entrance exam, they are finally available to do that because they need to prepare for the college application. However, their major subjects are usually chosen by social expectation because it is impossible for a high school student to decide their future just in a few weeks. As a result, they often find that their major subjects are incompatible with their interests in the freshman year. The principal of National Taiwan University, Professor Kuan (2021) states that about 55% of college students in Taiwan consider that they are not interested in their majors. Moreover, most of them will decide to drop out for retaking the college entrance exam and try to applicate a department they are really interested in. Therefore, some students drop out for pursuing their goals through re-exam or considering which subject is proper for them.
(A meme about education in Taiwan)
Finally, some students discontinue their studies because their bad academic performances may make them be kicked out of school. If you fail half of the subjects in one semester, you may be flunked out by your college. What’s more, in some colleges, it has been revised that you should not fail half of the subjects in continuous two or three semesters. As a result, some students may play a trick on the rule. They find that half of their subjects may be failed, and this condition they worry about has happened in the last semester. Subsequently, they will apply for dropping out in this semester. Thus, they will not be flunked out because they do not really fail half of the subjects in the “continuous” semester. This reason for dropping out may be ridiculous. Nevertheless, it may be a chance for them to reflect on their learning attitudes because some students think this kind of reason is shameful. Hence, a part of college students drop out to prevent themselves from being kicked out of school by their bad grades, and it might be a great opportunity for them to revise their learning attitudes.
To sum up, a growing number of Taiwanese college students drop out for the three primary reasons. First, the majority of students in Taiwan tend to quit school due to gaining more practical experiences in the society. Then, some students consider that their majors are incompatible interests. Moreover, bad academic performance may make college students play a trick on the rule about flunking out to discontinue the study, but some students may reflect on their learning attitudes then. Through the analysis in those paragraphs, we can find there is a gap between people’s imagination toward college life and what Taiwanese college students really think about. Most importantly, we have to discover the problem of higher education in Taiwan and improve our education system to make everyone have a better college life.
(A statistics about the college students' primary reasons of dropping out )
References
中時新聞網 (2021/08/19) 。育才警訊 5成5大學生自認選錯系。出處: https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20210819000400-260110?chdtv
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