經濟日報
2026/08/26 17:47:17
TAIPEI — Reported by Ke Mei-yi, United Daily News
As the summer vacation draws to a close, the Ministry of Education (MOE) issued the Reference Manual for Building Gender-Friendly Dormitories in Universities and Colleges today. The manual, now available on the official website (https://www.gender.edu.tw/web/index.php/home), provides higher education institutions with diverse housing models, including "gender-segregated rooms on the same floor" and "gender-inclusive apartment-style suites." The MOE stated that schools are encouraged to break away from the mindset of using biological sex as the sole basis for housing arrangements. Instead, they are urged to balance individual student needs, privacy, and safety in dormitory planning and management, while gradually reducing unnecessary gender segregation.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) stated that the "Reference Manual for Establishing Gender-Friendly Dormitories in Higher Education Institutions" was co-authored by the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association (TGEEA) and Professors Bi Heng-da and Lin Mei-chun under an MOE commission. Based on extensive domestic and international literature reviews, field visits, and case studies, the manual offers practical guidelines across multiple dimensions, including policy, application processes, space design, dormitory management, and student self-governance.
The manual ensures a diverse representation of universities and technological colleges across northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan, as well as both public and private institutions. Factoring in variables such as dormitory size, housing types, and gender-friendly amenities, 20 universities—including 11 public and 9 private schools—were selected for on-site visits and exchanges. The final manual was completed after benchmarking these findings against domestic and international dormitory spaces and living experiences.
National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) adopts the "mixed-gender floor, single-gender room" model, designating specific floors in dormitories as gender-friendly housing areas. While room assignments principle pair students of the same gender as roommates, different genders can live on the same floor, and no gender-based curfew or access restrictions are imposed.
Taking NTNU's 7th Student Dormitory as an example, floors 2 through 12 serve as student housing. Floors 3 to 6 are designated for male students and floors 7 to 12 for female students, while the 2nd floor is designed as a gender-friendly dormitory. This floor features 22 four-person rooms (10 male rooms and 12 female rooms) arranged in an alternating pattern, with each room equipped with its own bathroom. The laundry and drying areas are located on both ends of the floor and are used as gender-neutral shared spaces.
As for the "gender-neutral apartment-style dormitory" model, the MOE highlights National Chengchi University's (NCCU) Huanan New Village as a prime example. Under this system, students form their own groups to apply and draw lots together. Once selected, the school does not interfere with room assignments, leaving it to the group members to coordinate who sleeps where. Even with mixed-gender groups, actual living spaces still mostly maintain gender-based separation—for instance, roommates may still divide floors by gender within the same building.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) emphasized that gender-friendly dormitories do not require schools to adopt a single, uniform housing model. Instead, the goal is to guide institutions in rethinking their housing policies and spatial utilization to meet diverse gender needs, while balancing safety, personal privacy, and equality and inclusion. Schools can implement these changes progressively based on their unique conditions, such as introducing shared public spaces in existing dormitories before gradually expanding into models like different-gender occupancy by floor, zone, or room. Policies should then be dynamically adjusted based on student feedback and residential experiences.
News Source：https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202608260117.aspxhttps://money.udn.com/money/story/7307/9715451