Abstract

This thesis is aimed to understand the development process of Taiwan’s extension education within colleges and universities, relationship between education policy and organizational development, and the historical description of extension education in Taiwan. In this study, the establishment of extension education within colleges and universities is described as an evolutional organization.

Through the organizational ecology and institutional theory, and combing the organizational life cycle and the institutions and organizations, the case of C university’s extension education is analyzed. It is found that large-scale application of information and communication technology to extension education, digital campus has been implemented under the government policies and regulations, which results in network-type organization, and multi-industry business model. This organization has been created to balance between market and service requirements, so as to satisfy the social expectations. The strategic activities include the large-scale seminars and forums, tours to C university’s extension education, reinforcement of the image of the organization, the establishment of associations within colleges and universities, promotion of strategic alliances with other extension organizations, rational thinking of decisions, and the use of collective strength to create a joint organizational development process.

During the process, it is found out that for C university’s extension education between 1971 and 2010, by adapting to four external environmental factors: government policies and regulations, demographic structure, information and communication technology, and competition and cooperation, C university’s extension education becomes Taiwan's number one in terms of number of courses offered and number of students.