政府失靈與市場失靈：臺灣公私立大學學費政策及其問題之剖析

Government Failure and Market Failure: An Anatomy of Taiwan’s University Tuition Policy and Its Problems

88學年度之前，台灣的大學學雜費由教育部統一訂定。88學年度公布了「彈性調整學雜費方案」，讓各校可自訂學雜費徵收的項目及標準。然而，過去十餘年來，台灣的大學學費是過高還是過低？要不要調漲？漲幅多少？一直是教育部與大學的夢魘。在「反高學費聯盟」的堅持之下，89學年度之後，公私立大學能獲得調漲學費的校數少、漲幅低。大學苦於經費不足需藉由調漲學費以為挹注的訴求，並未得到適當的回應。在「政府、市場、大學」的三角關係中，大學在學費議題上很明顯屈居下風。台灣公私立大學學費多年的紛擾實源自政府的過度介入，致使政府失靈與市場失靈而導致台灣的大學學費政策的三個嚴重問題：一、私立大學過度倚賴學費收入，難以提升教育的品質；二、學費與教育品質脫鉤，市場機能不彰；三、學費呈反向重分配現象，政府未克盡提升社會公平正義之責任。如今解決之道唯有政府恪守政府與市場之分際，賦予大學更多自主，確實執行學費彈性化政策。

Prior to 1999-2000 academic year， the tuition fees of Taiwan’s public and private universities were uniformly decided by the Ministry of Education. With the passage of the “Flexible Tuition Fees Program”， universities are endowed with the right to decide the tuition fees by themselves. However， over the past years， at the insistence of the “Anti-high-tuition alliance”， few universities were able to raise tuition fees as they wished. This article argues that the reason that universities have been playing second fiddle in the triangle of government-market-universities is not out of the success of government and market. On the contrary， the double failures of government and market due to the over-intervention of the government in higher education result in the problems of Taiwan’s university tuition including: 1. the over-dependency of private universities on tuition fees; 2. the inconsistency between quality and tuition; 3. the uneven and retrogressive share of higher education cost between public and private university students. The only solution of the problems relies on the government’s determination to refrain from undue intervention of the market， to enhance the autonomy of universities and to implement flexible tuition policy.