台灣學生的大學選擇及求學路徑之探究(I)

As more private institutions have been established and junior colleges have been upgraded to technical colleges since 1985, students' opportunities and choices to attend four-year institutions in the Taiwan higher education system are increasing. Crossing institutional control with orientation, four types of institutions are identified—national universities, private colleges and universities, public technical colleges, and private technical colleges. This study examines whether there is social-class inequality in the type of institutions attended, with disparities among students from different family backgrounds becoming more prominent in college choice after four-year opportunities have expanded. Freshman survey data from the Taiwan Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System were used to test not only the role of family background but also academic and financial factors in predicting the outcome of student college choice. The results show that socioeconomically disadvantaged students are more likely to attend less prestigious and/or more expensive institutional types. In other words, this study finds two layers of stratification—the quality of institutions attended and the burden of paying tuition fees are unequal toward those who are already disadvantaged—which illustrate a regressive system of higher education finance in Taiwan.