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In order to help students make well-informed choices, reliable college ranking systems with comparable information about higher education institutions worldwide have been welcomed by many students. Because traditional college rankings had many methodological problems, a new type of user-based ranking, called 'personalized college ranking' started to develop in many nations in the late 1990s. In 2008, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), launched a ranking project called 'College Navigator in Taiwan' which developed the first Asian student-based college search engine to provide local and international students with transparent information on Taiwan's higher education institutions. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to compare the rational, strategies and pathways for establishing personalized college rankings. In order to analyze the gap between students' preferences and university presidents' concerns over ranking indicators, HEEACT's 'College Navigator in Taiwan' is adopted as a case study at the end of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic dishonesty has been an important issue. However, only few researches had been done in Asian countries, especially a nationwide study. A sample of 2,068 college students throughout Taiwan was selected and surveyed on four domains of academic dishonesty, including: cheating on test, cheating on assignment, plagiarism, and falsifying documents. The major findings of this study were: (1) the prevalence rate for all types of dishonesty behaviors among college students in Taiwan was 61.72%; (2) the top five most practiced academic dishonesty behaviors in Taiwan are provided paper or assignment for another student, gave prohibited help to others on their assignment, copied others’ assignments, passed answers to other students, and copied from other students; (3) students’ attitudes correlated with behaviors in all four domains of academic dishonesty; (4) females reported less acceptable to and behaved less academic dishonesty behaviors than males; and (5) freshmen had more dishonest practices than other class ranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate college students' attitudes towards advertising in Taiwan using a survey method. This study applied two advertising constructs and their operationalizations which were developed in the USA: beliefs about advertising and attitudes towards advertising in general (AG). Specifically, this paper intends to determine whether the factor structure of these beliefs is similar to those in the USA and other South Asian countries. It also measures whether Taiwanese consumers' beliefs about advertising predict their AG. Six belief factors were extracted and they accounted for 56.5% of the variance. While the results from the factor analysis did not replicate the results from the USA and other South Asian countries perfectly, the similarities were large enough to conclude that the belief structure underlying AG is similar to these regions. By regression analysis, four of the six factors contributed significantly to the prediction of consumers' AG. Three out of four predictor factors matched those found in other Asian countries. These findings indicated that Taiwanese consumers had the same AG as those in five South Asian countries. These consistent findings provide a benchmark for future study on crossnational consumer beliefs about advertising and AG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this quantitative study, we examined the awareness of mobile health (mHealth) applications among Taiwan’s university students, particularly the government-operated My Health Bank application. The My Health Bank application allows users to access their personal health information simply through their smartphone’s sensor-assisted facial recognition camera and fingerprint sensor. Whether these university students might help older adults to use this application if they perceive it to be helpful was also explored. Two instruments were used in this study, namely, the Perceptions toward My Health Bank (PMHB) and Geriatric Attitudes Scale (GAS). Two hundred twenty-five (225) university students from the Departments of Senior Citizen Service Management (n = 136) and Nursing (n = 89) at two universities participated in this study. The findings indicated low adoption of My Health Bank and related mHealth applications among students even though they had high adoption rates of smartphones. However, they perceived that the functions of this application are useful and should be promoted to older adults. Thus, building a basic foundation of mHealth and related technology courses is recommended to assist healthcare students in being well-prepared for working with older adults in the digital society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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To meet the challenges of internationalization, universities around the globe have implemented a variety of strategies, including study abroad, academic exchange, and cross-border collaboration. For any of these strategies, it was perhaps inevitable that English would become a crucial means of communication for both native and non-native speakers. The current study investigates the relationship between domestic college students' perceptions of English varieties (PEV), L2 motivation, and willingness to communicate (WTC) in the internationalization at home (IaH) context. A model linking PEV, L2 motivation, and WTC was proposed. A total of 273 college students at a university in Taiwan responded to a questionnaire consisting of 16 items in four major categories. The results indicate that in the IaH context college students' PEV significantly affects L2 motivation and only when learners are intrinsically motivated are they willing to communicate interculturally using English. The results suggest that promoting an appreciation for English varieties in the college context strengthens students' intrinsic motivation to learn English, which may promote the students' willingness to use English for communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a self-reflection intervention on college (college in this article refers to university-level education) students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation in Taiwan. One hundred and two college students were selected to participate in an 18-week intervention forming the experimental group (EG) which emphasized providing main lecture, role-play, self-reflection activity, group discussion and group work. Another 179 college students from two other courses were selected as a comparison group. This study showed that supportive, resourced discussion with peers and instructor, self-reflection activities and assignment as a facilitative agent improved the EG students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation. In addition, three structural equation models revealed that positive thinking had a strong and direct relation to Taiwanese college students’ pretest learning motivation (β = .85) and self-regulation (β = .77); learning motivation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β = .86) and self-regulation (β = .81); and self-regulation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β = .83) and learning motivation (β = .86). Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher education in Taiwan has expanded dramatically in the previous three decades. The number of students enrolled in higher education institutions has nearly quadrupled from 348,290 (1984) to 1,345,000 (2013). In 2012, the gross entrance rate of higher education reached 84.43 %, which is higher than most higher education systems in Asia. Higher education that transforms from a mass system to a universal system raises public concern regarding its quality. This study explored situations arising from a change to right-based higher education, particularly in pursuing a balance between quality and quantity in the process of establishing research universities. We selected two top public universities to illustrate how institutional arrangements play crucial roles in balancing quality and quantity. The findings reveal strong pressure for a world-class university within both universities, whereas student opinions reflect a neglect of instruction. In this case, faculty focused less attention on teaching compared to their research. These two universities should focus more efforts on teaching to balance quality and quantity toward a world-class research university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to investigate whether there are some signiicant differences between males and females in Multiple Intelligences (MI), learning behavior, and English performance. Participants are 388 college students who enrolled in English classes in a private five-year college in south Taiwan, including 134 males and 254 females. The research instrument consists of a series of questionnaires dealing with students' multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983), motivation/attitude in second language learning (Gardner & Lambert, 1985), belief about language learning (Horwitz, 1988), foreign language classroom anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986), language learning strategy (Oxford, 1990), and perceptual learning style preference (Reid, 1984). In addition, two sets of General English Proficiency Test (CEF A2) were used to measure students' English performance. The results revealed that gender differences do affect students' MI, motivation, strategy use, and learning styles to some extent, and lead to different performance in English learning. It's expected that the finding contributed to the EFL field by providing more understanding about students' individual differences and help EFL teachers to be more flexible and tolerant in their curriculum design, teaching activities, and learning assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to establish Taiwanese undergraduate nursing students' attitudes toward older people. This study involved a cross-sectional survey of 362 nursing students in a university in southern Taiwan. Overall, the results showed that nursing students had positive attitudes toward older people. Moreover, the findings suggested that nursing students' intention to work with older people and gender were important factors influencing their attitudes toward older people. The findings of this study indicate that efforts are required to maintain these positive attitudes. In addition, provision of nursing courses related to older people that place greater emphasis on attitudes about aging and that take into account students' working experience and career intention will lead to higher quality of care for older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the meaning of money. It presents an extension and exploration of the money ethic scale in a sample of university students in Taiwan. Results of the present study showed that those Chinese students who value money felt that they were controlled by external factors and had a high level of irritation, a symptom of stress. Further, Chinese students showed significant sex differences on achievement and respect, whereas full-time employees in the U.S. sample did not. This may be explained by the possible reduction of sex role stereotypes in the U.S. culture, but less change in the Chinese culture, for the last two decades and differences of their status and work experience in these two samples. Further, Chinese students believed that work ethics were related to one's achievement and respect in the community. These findings seem to support the notion that Chinese people esteem effort and they may have the belief that hard work leads to success. The significant relationship between Protestant Work Ethic and factor evil was replicated in the present study.