A Study on the Spatial Structure of the Source of Students in Taiwan's Universities

[[abstract]]廣設大學是1994 年台灣教育改革重點之一，造成台灣地區大學校院空間分布普及和學生數量大幅擴增，本文從學生空間流動引力模式理論，探討台灣地區大學學生來源距離之空間特性。利用台灣地區16 個空間單元，收集分析124 所大學校院14 萬5,954 筆學生來源資料，結果顯示：台灣地區高等教育就學水準尚稱地區均衡，每萬人口大學生來源主要集中於台北和台中地區。當地學生在當地大學就讀以澎湖地區最多，其次花蓮、宜蘭、南投等地；最低為台中地區，學生來源分布較均等，其次為彰化、台南及高雄等地區。各地區大學大致以本地區和鄰近地區學生來源為主，學生來源距離越遠則吸引強度減少，距離係數為-0.4065；台南、高雄高教區生源以南部和東部為主，中部次之。以學生前往就讀之地區來看，中部學生除當地區外，前往南部之傾向比北部為高。[[abstract]]It was highly encouraged to offer more opportunities for students to attend Universities/colleges since 1994 in Taiwan. The number of universities/colleges increased from 51 in 1993 to 137 in 2003. This research focuses on the distributions of the universities/colleges and their students. All the analyses made by this research were based on 145,954 students from 124 universities/colleges. Several findings can be concluded. First, the distribution of the opportunities for higher education in Taiwan is quite even for each county, while most students are from Taipei and Taichung areas. Second, as a island, Penghu area gain most students from local communities, Hualien, Yilan ,Nantou also have higher percentages of students from nearby areas. The universities/colleges in Taipei and Keelung area have the trend that many of their students come from other counties. Third, the distance decay situation exists for most universities/colleges in all area in Taiwan. In other words, the farer the students live the fewer students attend for a university/college. Most universities/colleges in Tainan and Kaohsiung have students mainly from south part of Taiwan and central Taiwan area. In addition, many students in central Taiwan area attend nearby universities/colleges, and more students go to universities/colleges in southern Taiwan than in northern Taiwan