Financial Analysis of the Top Public Universities in Taiwan

[LANGUAGE=”English”] 1. Research Motivation and PurposePublic universities in Taiwan have implemented endowment funds for more than 20 years. The main purpose of endowment funds is not only to relieve the government’s increasing financial burden but also to promote the universities’ ability to raise self-generated income and access social resources, which gradually facilitates the independent operations of university finances. As the top public universities in Taiwan strive to become world-class universities, the government has invested funds to finance their development and enhance their competitiveness. In addition, these universities implemented the endowment fund system and practiced financial autonomy early on. Therefore, whether the financial operations of these universities have fulfilled the expected policy objectives is of particular concern.2. Literature ReviewIn the context of global higher education, the financial operations of countries have expanded, with rising costs in recent years. However, economic recession has caused the government to drastically cut funding for higher education universities. Consequently, to reduce internal operating costs, universities have been required to seek funding from the private sector and increase self-generated income through various means. Based on the universities’ self-generated income, the private sector and the government jointly provide funds in a fixed ratio; earn revenue through the diversified operation of hospitals, dormitories, sports fields, restaurants, bookstores, and other affiliated institutions; increase revenue through publishing royalties, examinations, business consulting services, and provision of online courses and selling of textbooks; increase tuition and miscellaneous fees to balance university costs; effectively utilize the universities’ academic research resources to implement brand management strategies for obtaining external capital; reinvest endowment funds; and other measures. Although public universities can undertake a wide range of projects for rains endowment funds, they are yet to attain financial independence because public universities still mainly rely on government subsidies, the standard of charging tuition and fees is strictly controlled, and donations or investments are not actively institutionalized, resulting in ineffective outcomes. Many such practices still need to be improved for universities to achieve financial independence.3. Research MethodsBased on the dif