Taiwan has witnessed a vast expansion of higher education in recent years. It is important to investigate the direction of new programs/departments established by universities during this wave of expansion. This study intends to examine the patterns of how these new programs distribute in terms of year, school type, educational level and educational type, and what fields they concentrate on. Data came from the official lists of approved programs by Ministry of Education, consisting of 1276 units of analysis. It is found that: (1) the number of new programs accelerates over years, (2) school type matters; (3) master’s degree is the foremost educational level; (4) a large majority of new programs concentrate on applied/practical fields; (5) new programs reflect economic, political and social development; (6) the number of programs for recurrent education is on the rise. Implications of these findings for graduate, recurrent and higher education are further discussed.