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With cannons on campus, Qing Dynasty-era city walls, and Taiwan’s first Dutch fort nearby, National Cheng Kung University seems like an attractive place for budding historians. However, after submitting their initial applications, no students were accepted into the history department for the following year. This is a shock for a university ranked third in Taiwan. But it’s part of a broader trend.
In many parts of East Asia, universities are facing a demographic crisis. In Japan, the 18-year-old population has continued to decline since the 1990s. In Taiwan, the undergraduate population has declined by more than a quarter over the past decade. South Korean experts are talking about an “enrollment cliff,” with the number of students dropping from 3.6 million in 2010 to 3 million last year.
This is hitting faculties in the humanities and social sciences hard. Facing a more uncertain economic environment than their parents’ generation, students want to study subjects that will lead to well-paying jobs. These are primarily related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Private universities that educate most students in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are often dependent on tuition fees, so most universities have to adapt to students’ wishes to survive. Since 2000, 18 private universities in South Korea have permanently closed.
The government is also keen on STEM subjects. New academies at 12 universities in Taiwan are training young people to work in the semiconductor sector and other high-tech fields. In the past two years, 126 educational institutions in Japan have applied for government grants to focus on digital and green technologies.
What can you do? Although the university succeeded in increasing the number of foreign students, it was not enough to offset the population decline. However, efforts to increase the rate of university admissions among local residents may still bear fruit. Japan’s university population increased slightly from 2012 to 2022 due to an increase in female students.
In Singapore, student numbers continue to increase due to policies that encourage enrollment of older student groups, even as the traditional university student population declines. While the Singapore government favors STEM subjects, it also emphasizes the importance of social sciences and humanities in policy making. The number of students in those departments is increasing. ■
