對於高等教育是否應該繼續擴張的問題，普遍存在著正反兩面的爭論。爭論之焦點，一方著眼於「高教育高失業率」或「教育與職業不相稱」等人力資源浪費的問題；另一方面則強調教育不應僅被視為取得職業或專業訓練之工具，強調教育之人文性的主張。換言之，這些討論或堅持「高等教育的持續擴張，惡化了教育與勞動市場之間的配適程度」；或主張深究高等教育擴張的各種價值。然而，對於「高教人力的供需狀況及勞動市場對高教人力的回饋情形與程度，在高教擴張前是否優於高教擴張後？」這個基本問題，至今仍未確認；高等教育中各類科系在勞動市場上所獲得回饋的差異與產業結構變動之間的關係，亦不曾詳加檢視。 本研究以1979年至2000年的行政院人力運用調查資料進行分析，發現勞動市場對於專上勞動力的回饋，並沒有隨著時間的變化產生太大的差異。換句話說，產業結構在質與量上的改變，足以吸納高教擴張所生產之大量高教人力。然而，各科系所得到的回饋情形，隨時間而有明顯的消長：部分科系差異小，部分科系則差異甚大，展現出產業結構變化與科系在勞動市場上所得回饋之間的互動關係。本文的分析與比較，除有助於釐清高等教育擴張爭論的基本假設外，亦突顯出高教發展過程中，「科系發展」的相對重要性。

Given the dramatic change in Taiwan's labor makets and higher educational expansion in the past decade, it seems reasonable to assume that the supply and demand of higher education manpower will reveal quite different patterns. However, the linkage between higher education and labor market as well as the matching pattern among them have not been thoroughly discussed. Using data from 1979 to 2000 Taiwan Manpower Utilization Surveys, we investigate the effects of market structure and educational expansion on the matching pattern. Different types of return highly-educated labors got before and after the expaision of higher education in Taiwan are also compared. Our results indicate that workers having a bachelor degree tend to obtain better rewards than those who don't. However, this advantage changes by discipline over time. We thus conclude that the critics on higher educational expansion should be revisited. Further, we argue that the quality improvement of higher education is a more important target than the quantity accumulation.