The Study of Critical Success Factors and Effect Assessment for Merging of Public Universities: Example as University of Taipei

• Main Authors: Chih, Wan-Yi, 池婉宜
• Other Authors: Wang, Bao-Jinn
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/928q55

博士 === 臺北市立大學 === 教育學系 === 107 === This study explored factors affecting the success of university mergers in Taiwan and assessed the effectiveness of such mergers. The merger of Taipei Municipal University of Education (TMUE) and Taipei Physical Education College (TPEC) to form University of Taipei (UT) in August 2013 was used as an example. Interviews were performed with three TMUE and TPEC representatives from the UT merger committee, and a questionnaire was distributed to recover 109 valid samples from teachers and 43 valid samples from other university employees. The following results were obtained: 1. The government actively led and intervened the merger project to help the two universities complement for their differences and overcome development bottlenecks. The active engagement of the government was the most crucial factor facilitating the success of the merger. 2. The questionnaire revealed that 55.92%, 12.5%, and 31.58% of the respondents approved, disapproved, or held no opinion about the merger, respectively. 3. The respondents’ views regarding the effectiveness of the merger were as follows: a. Their level of agreement with five dimensions of the merger were medium or above. These dimensions were university positioning; university governance and management; teaching, research, curriculum development, and student learning; resource investment and integration; and education performance. In addition, the agreement level of university positioning was significantly higher than that of other dimensions. b. Regarding the items in the university positioning dimension, the respondents most agreed that the development of UT should focus on becoming an exemplary normal university, elite athlete training university, and urban innovation university. The respondents least agreed that UT should focus on becoming a Top 500 urban university worldwide. c. Regarding the items in the education performance dimension, the respondents most agreed that UT is capable of maintaining its tradition to cultivate excellent, competitive athletes. The respondents least agreed that providing students with favorable education quality can attract the admission of prospect students with outstanding performance. Noticeably, the agreement level of the ability to maintain the tradition to cultivate excellent, competitive athletes was significantly higher than that of the ability to maintain the tradition to cultivate outstanding teachers. d. Of the items in the teaching, research, curriculum development, and student learning dimension, the agreement level of student learning was significantly higher than that of teaching, research, and curriculum development. e. The respondents’ level of satisfaction with the merger process and overall effectiveness following the merger was medium or above. The satisfaction scores of these two dimensions differed nonsignificantly. 4. Differences in the views of respondents with different backgrounds regarding the effectiveness of the merger a. Teachers’ agreement with resource investment and integration, satisfaction with the merger process, and satisfaction with the effectiveness of the merger were significantly higher than those of other university employees. b. Faculty members in the Tianmu campus exhibited significantly higher agreement with the teaching, research, curriculum development, and student learning dimension and the student learning subdimension than did those in the Pohai campus. c. Faulty members in academic units were significantly more satisfied with the merger process than were those in administration units. d. Professors exhibited significantly higher agreement with university governance and management; teaching, research, curriculum development, and student learning; resource investment and integration; and education performance than did faulty members with other titles. In addition, professors were significantly more satisfied with merger process and the effectiveness of the merger than were faculty members with other titles. e. Faculty members in the College of Humanities of Arts were significantly more satisfied with university positioning, university governance and management, education performance, the merger process, and the effectiveness of the merger than were facility members in other colleges. Faculty members in the College of Kinesiology exhibited higher agreement with the teaching, research, curriculum development, and student learning dimension and the student learning subdimension than did those in other colleges. f. Respondents of different years of working experience exhibited nonsignificantly different agreement levels. g. Administration supervisors and nonsupervisors exhibited nonsignificantly different agreement levels. h. Before UT was established, faculty members in TPEC exhibited significantly higher agreement with the student learning subdimension than did those in TMUE. i. The respondents who approved the merger exhibited significantly higher agreement with all dimensions than did those who disapproved the merger. 5. The respondents with different satisfaction levels with the merger process exhibited significantly different satisfaction levels with the effectiveness of the merger. Specifically, those who were more satisfied with the merger process were also more satisfied with the effectiveness of the merger.