The Ministry of Education (MOE) has budgeted NT$1.58 billion (US$50.97 million) for personnel training next year as part of its response to the government’s New Southbound Policy.
It also plans to spend NT$450 million on student recruitment and subsidies to increase the number of students from ASEAN and India, and to help Taiwanese students enter internships and research programs there.
Its long-term plans include subsidizing up to 10,000 students studying abroad by 2021 to increase the international competitiveness of Taiwanese students, the ministry said.
The number of foreign students at the nation’s higher education institutions hit a record 117,970 last year, ministry data showed.
Deputy Minister of Education Yao Leeh-ter (姚立德) on Sunday said the ministry hoped to raise that number and was targeting a 20 percent annual increase in the number of students from ASEAN and India.
There are 41,000 students from ASEAN and India this year, and the ministry aims to increase that number to 50,000, he said.
The ministry also aims to send 5,000 Taiwanese students abroad next year, of whom 2,500 would take on internships and research projects in India and Southeast Asia, Yao said.
The ministry aims to increase the number of Taiwanese students in the region to 5,000 by 2021 — half of the total 10,000 it aims to send abroad by then — Yao added.
In another bid to boost ties with the region, the ministry would send 100 Mandarin teachers to Southeast Asia and India, Yao said, adding that they would also teach Taiwanese culture.
Meanwhile, the ministry would recruit 100 Southeast Asian and Indian instructors for doctoral studies in Taiwan, he said.
Wuu Dong-sing (武東星), a professor at National Chung Hsing University’s materials science and engineering department, said that ASEAN and India are indispensable markets for industrial growth and development.
Students who seek development opportunities in those countries would have an advantage when seeking jobs at Taiwanese and international companies that operate in the region, he said.
The ministry in June announced that starting next fall, Southeast Asian languages would be offered as electives in junior-high schools in a bid to improve cross-cultural understanding.
Students would be able to take Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Burmese, Cambodian, Bahasa Malaysia or Filipino courses, the ministry said.
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