The nation’s first offshore island university was inaugurated in Kinmen yesterday, with the Ministry of Education vowing the county would be exempted from limits on the number of Chinese students allowed to study there.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said residents of Kinmen had been calling for the creation of a university on the island for 20 years.
The government had requested a substantial budget for the renamed National Kinmen Institute of Technology, now officially known as National Quemoy University, Wu said, adding that the ministry would also allow the university to enroll as many Chinese students as it wanted as a means to thank residents of the island, which was once a frontline in the war between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party.
“Kinmen will be treated as a special zone to attract Chinese students. The 2,000 student cap will not apply to Kinmen,” he said. “As long as Chinese students are willing to attend National Quemoy University, we will accept them.”
The government has imposed a ceiling of 2 percent of total student admissions, or 2,000 Chinese students, at Taiwanese universities in the first year of the new policy to assuage fears that the presence of Chinese students could compromise the rights of Taiwanese students.
The bills have yet to clear the legislature, but the KMT caucus has vowed to deal with the proposals during this month’s provisional session. The amendments affect the University Act (大學法), the Vocational School Act (專科學校法) and the Act Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛), director of the ministry’s Department of Higher Education, said the ministry was also considering granting similar flexibility to schools on other offshore islands, including Penghu.
Lee Chin-cheng (李金振), president of National Quemoy University, said the school would expand its dormitories so that Chinese students who would like to study at the school could live there through to graduation.
On behalf of Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who was also at the ceremony, donated US$1 million to fund the establishment of an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute at the university.
Yesterday’s ceremony came the day after the Kinmen Education Bureau announced that more than 20 Taiwanese universities were planning to set up branches on Kinmen in preparation for the admission of Chinese students.
The county government said it would provide 2.5 hectares of land for use by universities.
Meanwhile, Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) said the county government would provide scholarships to attract top Chinese students to study on Kinmen, even though universities in Taiwan are prohibited from doing so.
The top 20 students in each class at National Quemoy University will be granted full tuition waivers, Li said. The tuition aid and transportation allowance for every student would also be raised, from NT$14,000 to NT$20,000, he added.
In related news, the president of Xiamen University cited National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday as the best university in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, with its solid academic foundation and innovation research.
NTU maintains a close connection with the pulse of Taiwanese society and plays a role in boosting social and economic development, Zhu Chongshi (朱崇實) said.
However, Zhu said Chinese universities were progressing well.
“They will catch up [with NTU] before long,” he said.
Noting that a great many Taiwanese companies have invested in China, he forecast that Chinese students being allowed to study in Taiwan would eventually be helpful to Taiwanese companies.
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