Tuition and fees for medical education and dental education in Taiwan from 1993 to 2021

Feng-Chou Cheng; Ming-Chung Lee; Ling-Hsia Wang; Wen-Juain Lin; Tsui-Hua Liu; Shiang-Yao Liu; Chun-Pin Chiang

doi:10.1016/j.jds.2022.04.026

Tuition and fees for medical education and dental education in Taiwan from 1993 to 2021

J Dent Sci. 2022 Jul;17(3):1106-1114. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2022.04.026. Epub 2022 May 11.

Authors

Feng-Chou Cheng^{1

2}, Ming-Chung Lee¹, Ling-Hsia Wang³, Wen-Juain Lin⁴, Tsui-Hua Liu^{1

5}, Shiang-Yao Liu^{1

6}, Chun-Pin Chiang^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Science Education Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Center for the Literature and Art, Hsin Sheng Junior College of Medical Care and Management, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
⁴ Taipei First Girls High School, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Science Education, College of Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Dentistry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background/purpose: In traditional Taiwan's society, attending medical school or dental school is usually the greatest aspiration of our students. This study tried to explore the evolution of the tuition and fees for medical education and dental education in Taiwan from 1993 to 2021.

Materials and methods: This study used the secondary data analysis to survey the changes in the actual amount of the tuition and fees from 1993 to 2021, and the association of tuition and fees with economic indicators.

Results: The one-year tuition and fees for medical education increased from 39,020 to 95,200 NT dollars in 1993 to 78,327 and 135,829 NT dollars in 2021 for public and private medical schools, respectively. On the other hand, the one-year tuition and fees for dental education increased from 35,700 to 87,100 NT dollars in 1993 to 71,607 and 130,682 NT dollars in 2021 for public and private dental schools, respectively. Because different increase rates between public and private schools, the gap between tuition and fees per gross domestic product per capita (capita GDP) and those per basic annual salary of labor for public and private schools was shortened year by year.

Conclusion: In addition to allowing reasonable increases of tuition and fees, the government should also consider to let the disadvantaged students pay less tuition and fees, assist disadvantaged students through school loans, school grants or scholarships, and improve the opportunities for disadvantaged students to enroll in medical and dental schools through the admission system.

Keywords: Basic annual salary of labor; Capita GDP; Dental education; Medical education; Tuition and fees.