The Exploration of the Development of Taiwan's PhD Education in the Field of Biomedical Sciences Tzu-heng Chiu (tzchiu@tmu.edu.tw) Professor, Center for General Education / Library Director, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan 2018.9.27 @ETD
About me
Co-authors Hung-te Wang (hunter@ncl.edu.tw) Librarian, Knowledge Services Division, National Central Library, Taiwan An-chi Lin (angela@ncl.edu.tw) Editor, Knowledge Services Division, National Central Library, Taiwan
Research Background • Between the 2010 – 2014 academic years, ca. 4,000 PhD students have graduated from universities in Taiwan each year. • ca. 700 students per year graduated in the field of biomedical sciences (including fields such as medicine / health science and life science). • In the 2015 academic year, although the total number of PhD graduates nationwide was the lowest (3,617 graduates) in 6 years, the number of graduates in fields related to biomedical sciences increased.
PhD graduates in Taiwan Academic year All fields Medicine health science Life & Biomedical science sciences 2015 3617 473 274 747 2014 4048 465 253 718 2013 4241 438 289 691 2012 3861 364 245 609 2011 3846 399 250 649 2010 3705 309 201 510 Source : The Department of Statistics (DOS) of MOE. https://stats.moe.gov.tw/
Research Background • PhD graduates generally want to be employed as faculty members or as post-doc researchers in related departments of universities , whereas fewer will choose to work in industries. • This study analyzed the official web pages of university departments in Taiwan related the biomedical sciences to compile data on the graduating universities and departments of their full-time faculty members. • This enabled an inference on the employment status of biomedical science PhD graduates who are working as teachers.
Research purposes • To explore the distributions of graduation year, school category, and school location of biomedical sciences PhD graduates in Taiwan. (by analyzing their dissertations) • To explore the employment statuses of PhD graduates of biomedical sciences in Taiwan employed as faculty members in universities. This was done by – Examining the career paths of these graduates. – Examining the phenomenon of joint appointments in Taiwan.
Methodology • The most labor-intensive processes of this research were data cleansing and defining, collecting, and organizing the data sets. • Three data sets employed in this study were: – Data Set 1: bibliographic records of biomedical science related dissertations. – Data Set 2: a list of faculty members in the biomedical science related departments of universities in Taiwan with a domestic PhD degree. – Data Set 3: a list of the categories and locations of universities in Taiwan.
Data Set Sources Number Date of data of records collected S1: B ibliographic NDLTD system (NCL, Taiwan) 26,023 2017.10.1 國圖博碩士論文資料庫 records of biomedical science related dissertations Faculty information web pages of S2: A list of faculty 7,868 2016 academic year every biomedical science related members in the 2017.11.04 department in Taiwanese biomedical universities. science related 全國生醫領域各相關系所網頁之 departments of 師資資訊 universities in Taiwan with a domestic PhD degree Ministry of Education website; the 157 S3: A list of the 2017.10.19 websites of all universities in Taiwan categories and 教育部大專校院名單、全國各大 locations of 專校院網站資料 universities in Taiwan
Data Set 1 • Bibliographic records of biomedical science related dissertations from the National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan (NDLTD system) of National Central Library, Taiwan. • were selected in accordance with the department code subjected to authority control by the NDLTD system from the 936 Taiwanese graduate schools. • As a result, 26,023 dissertations from 1972 to 2017 were retrieved.
NDLTD system
Data Set 2 • No ready-to-use data were available • RA manually collected data for faculty members with a domestic PhD degree from the faculty information webpages of every biomedical science related department in Taiwanese universities. They then compiled all data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. • A record is consist of following fields: (1)names (both Chinese and English), (2) graduating school and department, (3) school and department of employment, (4) graduation year (if stated), (5) appointment status (i.e., full-time professor, adjunct professor, joint appointment professor, or professor emeritus).
Data Set 3 • Was organized by the RA based on the existing data files downloaded from the Ministry of Education website. • Location (city /county) of each university was key-in by RA based on their website information.
Research limitation • The NDLTD system has a distributed implementation architecture, graduate students from each school submit their works for examination by the person in charge of each school. • The quality and completeness of each record may be inconsistent. • Therefore, a considerable amount of labor time was invested in organizing the bibliographic records obtained from this system. • However, the entry errors could not be processed, which is the limitation of this study.
Research Finding 1-1 : Graduation year • The number of dissertations in the biomedical sciences field has increased substantially. • In particular, the number of biomedical sciences dissertations in the 2000s is 2.5 times that of those in the 1990s. • Among the 26,023 dissertations reviewed in this study, – 35 were written in the 1970s – 468 in the 1980s – 3,783 in the 1990s – 9,544 in the 2000s – 12,193 in 2010 ~2017
Research Finding 1-2 : School Category • PhD education in the biomedical sciences in Taiwan is mainly centered in public universities , where 85% of dissertations were produced; • 96% of PhD graduates were educated in the higher education system rather than the technical or vocational education system.
Research Finding 1-3: Graduating School Location • The 26,023 biomedical sciences dissertations are from 65 schools, and the geographical distribution of such schools is highly disproportionate, 70% of the PhD biomed PhD students were enrolled in schools in Northern Taiwan. • # of university – 1 st Taipei City contains 16 universities that offer PhD programs in the field of biomedical sciences; – 2 nd Taichung City has 11 such universities. • # of Diss. / Univ. – 1 st The two universities in Hsinchu City offering PhD programs in the biomedical sciences produces with an average of 2,488 dissertations each year; – 2 nd the three universities in Tainan City offering such programs produces with an average of 828 dissertations each year.
Northern Taiwan City / # of # of # of Diss. / Univ. County Dissertation University 基隆市 279 1 279 臺北市 10,403 16 650 新北市 361 4 90 桃園市 2,233 8 279 新竹市 4,976 2 2,488 18,252 Sub total 31 （ 70.14% ） Middle Taiwan City / # of # of # of Diss. / Univ. County Dissertation University 苗栗縣 3 1 3 臺中市 2,428 11 221 彰化縣 80 3 27 南投縣 54 1 54 雲林縣 55 2 28 2,620 Sub total 18 (10.07%)
Southern Taiwan City / # of Dissertation # of University # of Diss. / Univ. County 嘉義市 39 1 39 嘉義縣 572 1 572 臺南市 2,484 3 828 高雄市 1,739 7 248 屏東縣 75 1 75 Sub total 4,909 13 (18.86%) East Taiwan City / County # of Dissertation # of University # of Diss. / Univ. 宜蘭縣 5 1 5 花蓮縣 237 2 119 242 Sub total 3 (0.93%) Total 26,023 65
Research Finding 2-1 : Employment status as faculty members • 2-1-1 Employed in their graduating school – A total of 7,868 teachers employed in biomedical science related departments in Taiwan have a PhD degree from one of the 62 universities in Taiwan. – PhD students of 7 universities were more likely to stay or return to their school of graduation for employment in teaching (more than 50%) compared with those from other higher education institutions in Taiwan. • National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences • Chung Shan Medical University • National Taipei University • Fu Jen Catholic University • Taipei Medical University • China Medical University • National Chiayi University
# of persons employed in # of School of graduation Percentage the graduates graduating school 國立高雄應用科技大學 1 1 100.00% 中山醫學大學 87 66 75.86% 國立臺北大學 7 4 57.14% 輔仁大學 32 17 53.13% 臺北醫學大學 117 62 52.99% 中國醫藥大學 67 35 52.24% 國立嘉義大學 2 1 50.00%
Research Finding 2-1: Employment status as faculty members • 2-1-2 Employment in other universities in Taiwan – In terms of biomedical science PhD graduates seeking employment in universities other than their graduating school – • >100 schools – National Taiwan University – National Tsing Hua University • 80-99 schools – National Chiao Tung University – National Cheng Kung University – National Central University
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