The Ministry of Education said yesterday it had completed preliminary plans allowing Chinese students to attend local universities and to grant recognition of Chinese education credentials, adding it had also prepared full supplementary measures to ensure the rights of Taiwanese students.
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) told the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee that the ministry would cap the number of Chinese students allowed to enroll in local schools at under 1 percent of university vacancies and no scholarships would be offered.
Chinese students would not be allowed to study national security-related subjects, he said.
They would also be banned from working part-time outside of school and required to return home as soon as they complete their studies, Cheng said.
The ministry plans to recognize diplomas only from Chinese schools with “distinguished academic reputations,” Cheng said, though it would not recognize any Chinese medical credentials.
Chinese credential holders would not be allowed to take part in national certificate examinations or become government employees unless they hold Republic of China citizenship, he said.
“[We drew up the plan] to solve some real problems,” Cheng said.
“There are about 6,000 to 7,000 Taiwanese students studying in China and nearly 240,000 Chinese spouses in Taiwan. They are all facing problems in employment and recognition of their diplomas,” he said.
Cheng said he believed the ministry’s plans would facilitate cross-strait educational and academic exchanges and promote interaction, understanding and mutual learning between youth from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The plans would also help improve Taiwan’s international image while maintaining the nation’s dignity, Cheng said.
“Taiwan, as an open, democratic and confident country, has given importance to reciprocity, but we still have not lived up to the international community’s expectation in terms of [the scale of] cross-strait academic exchanges,” he said.
He promised to push the ministry’s plan with caution to safeguard the rights of Taiwanese students.
The plans must be reviewed by the Executive Yuan and some laws will have to be amended by the legislature before the scheme can be fully implemented.
However, Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) questioned whether Cheng Jei-cheng could keep his promise once students from China were allowed to study here.
Chen criticized the minister, saying the ministry had insisted on pushing its plan even though “it knew perfectly well it was unfeasible.”
“Over the past 16 years, no administration dared to push through such a policy,” Chen said.
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