Sustainable Higher Education Policy: The Strategic Implication of Taiwan’s SPROUT Project and Fiscal Sustainability

Worldwide educators have been devoting resources to quality education and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Taiwan strategically implemented the Higher Education Sustained Progress and Rise of Universities in Taiwan (SPROUT) Project with an equity-oriented resource allocation. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of SPROUT’s implementation by analyzing 2018 to 2023 data. In this study, we construct a Fiscal Sustainability Index and other Institutional Performance Index to assess institutions. The two-way fixed effects regression model is applied to investigate the causal relationship among FSI, institutional performance, and the implemented effect of the SPROUT Project. The results of this study showed that the SPROUT Project has not fully achieved all four core objectives, and regional disparities still persisted. In other words, the elite universities in northern Taiwan still receive the most SPROUT Project funding and outperform other universities in other regions. FSI is positively associated with publicness, social responsibility, and overall institutional performance. The results of this study show how higher education institutions can achieve partial sustainable development goals of Goal 2030 via fiscal sustainability and equitable resource allocation. Taiwan’s pivot toward an equity-funding paradigm and supplement with performance-based grants has attenuated the historical concentration of resources among elite universities. Quality education should be inclusive, equitable, and accessible in education and sustainable resources.