Articulation from High School to University in East Asian Countries

From the Perspective of University Admission Systems

Abstract

　 The purpose of this paper is to clarify the recent situation concerning the relationship between higher education and upper secondary education in the three East Asian countries of Korea, Taiwan, and China. In these countries, higher education has diversified as a result of the rapid quantitative expansion and increasing autonomy of universities and colleges, and against this background, efforts have been made to mold the relationship between higher education and upper secondary education into a more appropriate form. Selecting one issue, the reform of the university admissions system, while the extent and direction are dissimilar in each of the three countries, there are some common trends. The first is that the national unified academic ability examination has been the subject of an ongoing review. The second is that the selection of applicants has come to be based not only on the score gained in the academic ability examination, but on various factors that have been introduced as part of the multi-dimensional modification of evaluation standards. The third is that the results of various activities carried out by the candidate concerned in upper secondary school have gradually come to be regarded as selection indicators. At the same time, some universities, even in the same country, can be seen to have each introduced different methods of selecting applicants. As every country seeks better articulation between higher education and upper secondary education, there is a need to keep a close and detailed watch on the progress of articulation reforms as they follow the path of increasing diversification.