Starting from the 1980s, universities in Taiwan took the lead in Asia in emphasizing the role of research in higher education. Unlike community colleges and short-term vocational schools, universities can be classified into four categories, but each one contains teaching and research components. The four categories are universities with an emphasis on liberal arts education, professional universities with an emphasis on professional education programs, comprehensive universities and specialized universities. Universities across the Strait lean towards empty talk, bragging about their whole-person education, their capacity for training university students to become erudite in the liberal arts, skilled in communication, knowledgeable about the past and the present, and highly proficient in English. By offering many courses, they claim that their students are equipped with both local knowledge and an international perspective, are responsive to societal needs, innovate and enjoy leisure, and are able to define their historical positioning.