The 1984 Change in Taiwan's Joint College Entrance Exam, Re-ranking of Colleges of Arts, Law, and Business, and the Decrease in Women's "Occupational Segregation"

Author: Hung-Lin Tao(Dept. of Economics, Soochow University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 48, No. 2
Date：October 2003
Pages：191-214
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2003104802004

Abstract：

Law School has been the top choice of students taking Taiwan's college entrance exam in recent years; before 1984 Law School was the last choice. Before that year, the test for entering departments within the College of Arts was quite different from the entrance test used by both the College of Business and College of Law. In 1984 all three groups of students (potential enrollees in the Colleges of Arts, Business and Law) starting taking a much more unified exam, and Taiwan's Colleges of Law (Law School) jumped to a higher ranking in 1984 and 1985; thereafter the Law School ranking rose gradually to number one. The reason is that the ranking of a school is based on the difficulty of entering it, and this is a function of the number of possible applicants competing to enter it: this number increased as a result of the 1984 change in the entrance exam system. Also after 1984, women students-who previously tended to be restricted by the exam system to the College of Arts departments-started entering the Business and Law Colleges and thus moving into law and business related fields. The increasing number of women entering Law School is another important reason-closely tied to the one just mentioned-for the rise in Law School's ranking. The greater availability of Law and Business School to women also was a key factor in the overcoming of women's "occupational segregation," an implicit effect of the pre-1984 exam system. This study explores, then, in greater depth the mechanisms at work here: that is, the relation between the three factors: reform of the exam system, re-ranking of the Colleges of Arts, Law and Business, and the decreasing occupational segregation of women.

Keywords：joint college entrance exam, ranking, occupational segregation

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