Education

The School of Life

• Byline:AUDREY WANG
• Publication Date:08/01/2008

Community colleges have become one of the nation's most structured channels for lifelong learning. (File Photo)

For 10 years, community colleges have enabled students to learn important skills that are not taught in Taiwan's formal universities.

Former business owner Chen Yung-jung, 48, once disapproved of his wife's decision to attend classes at a community college. Today, however, he is a veteran student with 125 credits at Taipei County's Yungho Community University (YCU). When asked to summarize his seven-year educational experience there, he says his outlook has been fundamentally altered. "It's there that I've discovered the true value of life. I've learned that it's not just making a living, but more about interaction and relationships with people, with the community and the society we live in," he says.

In Taiwan, the formal education system is tightly focused on providing the educational background needed to compete in the job market and preparing students for advanced study. But while this system produces individuals who have a certain kind of specific knowledge, it does not necessarily impart the skills that enable individuals to lead better, fuller lives. This has been the role played by the island's community colleges for the last 10 years.

Chen is one of the more than 210,000 students who enrolled in a community college in 2007, one of the nation's most structured channels for lifelong education. Community colleges were initiated in 1998 by a group of education reformers with the aims of offering easier access to education and promoting the development of civil society in Taiwan.

The colleges are often regarded as part of a social movement that seeks to extend the benefits of education to all, especially the underprivileged and blue-collar workers, says Kao Ru-ping, the director of the National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities (NAPCU) in Taipei, a nongovernmental organization charged with promoting, developing and coordinating community colleges in Taiwan. "By opening the gate to higher education to more people, community colleges give citizens the knowledge and ability to serve the community and society, which will eventually lead to a better citizenry and a more advanced society," Kao says.

The central government has drawn very clear lines to distinguish the role of community colleges from the role of officially recognized universities. In the Lifelong Learning Act promulgated in 2002, community colleges were categorized as "informal" education institutions and therefore unable to confer formal academic degrees. Since then, community colleges have worked to carve out a niche in the educational system by emphasizing accessibility and coursework relevant to students' lives. Ideally, lifelong education "should be able to help students learn naturally and easily, draw out their passion for learning and lead them to be more community-minded and willing to serve society," says Ku Chung-hwa, one of the earliest advocates of community colleges and a professor in National Chengchi University's Sociology Department.

Rising Enrollment

Despite being unable to offer degrees, community colleges have continued to grow, increasing from only one school in 1998 to 78 in 2007. Total student enrollment has also risen, climbing from 3,000 in 1998 to the more than 210,000 in 2007. The increasing number of community college students reveals the strong interest in learning venues outside the formal educational system, and also shows that people are increasingly recognizing that education has a wider application in people's lives outside the job market.

Chou Sheng-hsin, one of the co-founders of YCU and a board member of NAPCU, says that "people come to community colleges to seek individual enrichment, to develop broader interests and enhance their life skills." Chen also believes that the jump in student numbers can be attributed to the accessibility offered by community colleges, which allow people to "learn anywhere, at any age."

Chen Yung-jung's wife Pan Mei-fang, a full-time homemaker, says she has always enjoyed learning and tried many ways to quench her thirst for knowledge before she began taking classes at YCU. Pan, who began attending YCU before her husband, embodies the government's ideal of a community college student--one who wants to learn the skills essential for leading a richer life. "I've always been interested in social sciences and literature, especially the topics related to my life such as parenting, family and interpersonal relationships," she says.

To continue learning after she earned her vocational high school diploma, Pan used to go to free public lectures and took classes offered by National Open University (NOU), the nation's only distance education program that grants college degrees. Having studied at YCU for nine years, Pan believes that the learning environment at a community college suits her much more than that offered by NOU, where the courses are mostly offered via television and the Internet. "[When I was studying at NOU,] I often accidentally missed classes broadcast on TV, and sometimes I skipped them when I got busy," Pan says. "I also had to study the textbook all on my own, which wasn't easy or interesting." Pan dropped out during her first semester at NOU. When she enrolled in classes again, she only managed to pass one of the three courses she had registered for.

Unlike NOU's distance learning, community colleges emphasize close interaction between teachers and students. Through this interaction, students also learn the critical life skill of working effectively with others. Any person above the age of 18--including those with limited educational backgrounds--are welcome to enroll. Most classes are available at the low cost of NT$2,400 to $3,000 (US$80 to $100) per semester. Encouraged by the vibrant class atmosphere, Pan has earned some 150 credit hours, representing around 50 classes, so far. After attending YCU for nine years, lifelong education has truly become a way of life for her.

Pan says one reason she continues to study at YCU is that she is attracted to the simple, practical teaching method the college employs. For example, she says studying philosophy teaches the important skill of critical analysis, but it is often taught in a stuffy formal manner in university classrooms. YCU employs a more user-friendly, practical approach, she says. "I once took a course named 'Philosophy in Coffee Shops,'" Pan says. "The teacher gave us several topics to discuss in our groups and gradually worked in some philosophical concepts. I found that much easier and less intimidating than taking a course like 'Philosophy 101.'"

Under the guidance of their teachers, YCU students researched, planned and constructed ecology ponds under the Fuho Bridge in Yungho City. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)

Life Skills

Because community college classes may not be structured in the same manner as formal university classes, YCU co-founder Chou worries that the public could develop the misconception that community college classes do not impart valuable skills. "When a learning channel like ours is classified as 'outside the formal education system,' some people may get the wrong idea and think it's loosely constructed and just a leisure activity," she says. "But we believe that community colleges teach students skills they can apply in their lives right away. The schools can help students find solutions to community and social issues they care about."

Pan Mei-fang's husband Chen was once among those who thought of community college courses as recreational, and his attitude remained unchanged until he overheard one of his wife's discussions with other classmates. "I thought a discussion in an all-woman group would be only chitchat or gossip, but I was surprised to hear them seriously reviewing the nation's nine-year mandatory education policy," Chen says. "That kindled my curiosity about the school."

Curiosity piqued, Chen began to attend classes at YCU. Taking advantage of the diversity of courses offered there, he was able to start off in his comfort zone by taking a few DIY classes in the beginning. He gradually gained more confidence and began to try out other types of courses that demanded more reading and studying, something he had disliked in his childhood and for most of his adult life. As he continued at the community college, Chen discovered the joy of learning for the first time, and recalls a significant experience of self-realization when he took a course named "Criticism and Self-reflection." "I was reading the textbook and came to the part where it talks about the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. It was exactly like somebody was telling me about my relationship with my wife. I suddenly realized that in my marriage, I have always been the oppressor and my wife the oppressed," Chen recalls. Far from merely imparting "book knowledge" as Chen had originally feared, the course taught him the crucial life skill of how to develop and maintain meaningful relationships. "The book described my marriage more accurately than a fortune teller could," he says. "It was then that I started to grasp the idea that studying is more than memorizing some facts, and I learned that books could have a direct impact on my life."

Immediate Opportunity

Compared with students at formal universities, students at community colleges usually have more immediate opportunities to put their newfound knowledge to work. For example, Chen and Pan say they learned how to work as a part of a larger group through their participation in YCU school clubs. The clubs, which focus on community development and discussing social issues, also taught the couple that developing healthy relationships extends beyond the family to relationships with society at large. Among other activities, the members of the clubs take field trips to exemplary communities and participate in projects to improve their own communities and local environment. After the field trips, members typically exchange ideas on various community and social issues and come up with ways to help.

Pan's group, for example, helped to teach Mandarin to new immigrants in their community, and the new residents eventually went on to organize a club of their own. Chen's group once visited two local candidates running for seats in the Legislative Yuan, holding a face-to-face discussion with the candidates about their ideas for local development. They also both took part in a group that researched, planned and constructed special ponds in a park under the Fuho Bridge in Yungho City. All the work was performed by YCU students under the guidance of teachers who specialize in natural resource conservation. The park opened to the public in 2006 and now serves as an outdoor classroom and leisure facility.

Through her community work, Pan says she has learned how much she can achieve by working with others. In turn, this has helped her gain more self-confidence, and now she is determined to learn more and do more for her community. Chen says he treasures his newfound relationships with others and connection to society at large, and he credits this turnaround to the training and opportunities offered by YCU. "It's a process of discovering and realizing the value of life," he says, referring to the process of learning how to work effectively with others toward a common goal. "Community colleges have taught me how to do it and why to do it."

Degree Dispute

The NAPCU and some members of the wider education community are in a dispute with the Ministry of Education (MOE) over whether or not community colleges should be able to grant formal academic degrees. The disagreement centers on different perceptions of the fundamental role that community colleges should play. In some other countries, students at community colleges are able to earn academic degrees or apply a percentage of the credits they earn toward a degree at a formal university. In these countries, community colleges can act as a gateway to higher learning for students who possess a limited academic background or those who do not have the financial means to attend a larger university. In Taiwan, currently nearly 50 percent of the students at community colleges have earned a bachelor's degree or graduate degree, indicating that the colleges are playing a limited role in reaching those with less education.

In November 2006, the government made a move to address the concerns of educators who would like to see community colleges play more of a gateway role. A new policy stipulated that students who earn 40 credits in specific community college courses--including natural science, the humanities, social science and art--certified by the MOE would be eligible for a high-school equivalency certificate. The MOE also specified that these students would earn the right to compete with other high school graduates for a chance to enter formal universities. This marks a significant change, but is still far from establishing community colleges as a gateway to mainstream university education. Chou believes that building the reputation of community colleges will help their development and could lead to eventual changes in government policy.

Pan's total of 150 credits exceeds the 128 credits required to earn a bachelor's degree at many formal universities, while her husband Chen has 125 credits. However, they both agree that while the prospect of earning a college degree is tempting, it is not important enough for them to regret their decision to study at a community college. "Putting classroom knowledge into practice is often neglected by mainstream education institutions, but it's heavily emphasized by community colleges," Chen says. As more people get a clearer picture of the nature of education provided by community colleges, he believes that the "informal" knowledge gained from classes such as those at YCU "may even prove to be more useful than any formal college diploma could be."

Write to Audrey Wang at awang@mail.gio.gov.tw