Taiwan University
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TAIWAN
PHONE: 886-2-3620886
www.ntu.edu.tw

THE BOTTOM LINE

When Taida celebrated its 70th anniversary last November, it staged the modern Italian play Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Three enormous screens showed close-up shots of the student actors and provided other effects. The performance was broadcast live over the Internet. "We were the first in Taiwan to combine multimedia with performing arts on stage," says Lee Si-chen, Taida's dean of academic affairs. In August, Taiwan's elite university will form a new department of theater and drama, which it hopes will eventually evolve into a full-blown art college.

Taida has been criticized for being hidebound, but the winds of change are blowing. Three years ago, it invited students to evaluate their teachers through an Internet website. Just 30% took up the offer. Today, seven out of 10 students are participating. Interdisciplinary cooperation is taking off. A cancer research center to be set up next year will unite teachers and researchers now working in different departments. Twenty professors from fields such as biochemistry and physiology have accepted dual appointments so they can begin research in the university hospital's oncology department.

Some of the changes are posing challenges. After cutting subsidies by 25% two years ago, the government has kept funding at the same level despite inflation. Taida raised tuition fees by 10% this year. "Things are getting more and more expensive," says Cheng Shu-yun, a sociology researcher. "Other students are complaining that the quality of education has not improved with the increases."

There are worries for the future as Taiwan's economy slows down. But Lee sees a silver lining. PhDs in electrical engineering and information technology used to spurn academia for fat bonuses in the semiconductor industry. The balance may shift as the private sector faces a downturn of its own.

- By Jane Rickards