近五十年來,台灣大專院校的總數從1945年的4所增為2000年的150 所。回顧戰後台灣教育發展的歷史軌跡,有幾項教育政策特別值得注意,包括:(1)自1968年起,義務教育延長為九年;(2) 1972年起,凍結私立學校之籌設申請;及(3) 1985 年起,恢復私立學校之申設。本文使用2000 年的社會變遷調查資料,實徵探討在上述這三段歷程裡,高等教育的擴展對教育機會分配的影響,分析結果顯示:自從1985 年解除設校禁令後,兩性教育機會均等已是顯著的新趨勢。當控制住家庭社經背景的因素後,除了原住民的教育取得仍然處於(長期)劣勢外,其他族群在教育機會的分配上已無顯著的差別,這一點發現和駱明慶(2001)有關「未來省籍間教育成就的差異將會持續存在」之預測相反。另一方面,本文彰顯出技職教育與一般教育分流的雙軌體制對高等教育取得的顯著影響;當高等教育不再是少數菁英家庭的特權時,父親職業地位較高的優勢階層顯著的流露出「重學術、輕職業取向學校」的階級偏好來。
During the second half of the twentieth century, Taiwan expanded its tertiary education system, with the number of institutions increasing from 4 in 1945 to 150 in 2000. Within this period, the major events related to educational expansion include the 1968 extension of compulsory education, the 1972 restriction on establishing new private institutions, and the 1985 deregulation. This paper examines the effects of its expansion for access to different types of tertiary education, using data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey conducted in 2000. The empirical results indicate a dramatic improvement in women's educational attainment in recent years. After controlling for the effects of socioeconomic background, the advantage of Mainland-origin youth disappeared, different from Luoh's (2001) prediction that the differences in educational attainment between the Taiwanese and the Mainlanders would persist in younger cohorts. In addition, this analysis demonstrates significant effects of secondary school tracking and father's occupational status on the odds of attending a university or a four-year college rather than a junior college.