Several university presidents yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to allow Chinese students who will soon be entering the nation’s universities to join the National Health Insurance program, just as other international students do.
Asked to comment on the sidelines of the Third Cross-Strait University Presidents’ Forum in Taipei, Shih Hsin University president Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘) said problems could arise as Chinese students begin to enroll in Taiwanese universities next year because they cannot be insured under the program at present.
National Chengchi University president Wu Si-hua (吳思華), who hosted the forum, said Chinese students should be able to enjoy the same rights as international students.
Under the National Insurance Act (全民健康保險法), only Republic of China nationals who have had household registration in Taiwan for more than four months are allowed to participate in the mandatory social insurance system.
Foreigners who have had residency in Taiwan for more than four months are also allowed to be insured under the program. However, students from China do not fit into either category.
The director of the ministry’s -Department of Higher Education, Ho Cho-fei (何卓飛), dismissed the possibility, saying Chinese students should be covered under a student insurance plan.
They can purchase other private insurance if necessary, Ho said.
Meanwhile, National Cheng Kung University president Michael Lai (賴明詔) said he was concerned about the ability of universities to attract Chinese students, given the restrictions the ministry sought to impose on them.
Following the relaxation of rules in August, universities are now allowed to recruit students from China, but are barred from providing -scholarship funding or part-time jobs to Chinese.
Michael Lai said Cheng Kung University had sought to provide funding for potential students from China through fundraising.
In related developments, Ho told the two-day forum that education officials across the Taiwan Strait should establish a mechanism allowing them to conduct regular dialogue and thereby ensure that papers signed by ministries or universities on both sides are legally binding.
The ministry has been considering a cross-strait educational memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a systematic platform for dialogue.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said last month that the ministry hoped to ink the MOU by the end of the year.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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