Taiwan is facing increasing challenges attracting students from Southeast Asia amid heightened competition from China and other nations, despite efforts to push ahead with policies to lure international talent, the Cabinet said yesterday.
“Taiwan faces great challenges recruiting Southeast Asian students, as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore are also recruiting them,” Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興) said.
“The council and the Ministry of Education have attracted a considerable number of Southeast Asian students each year, but we admit that the pressure has become greater, as China has increased spending on Southeast Asia” to lure students, Wu said.
The council and the ministry outlined their efforts to tap into the Southeast Asian market and attract international students as part of the government’s “new southbound policy” in a report to the Executive Yuan.
A quality and inexpensive higher education, cultural similarity, friendly people and an urban lifestyle are what attract Southeast Asian students to Taiwan, Wu said.
“Democracy and freedom are the biggest attractions for Southeast Asian students, and academic freedom gives Taiwan the edge over China,” Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The council has relaxed admission requirements and provided job-matching services for prospective students, with a job fair featuring more than 100 Taiwanese businesses based in Southeast Asian countries on Tuesday next week and April 15 offering 1,800 jobs.
Other council proposals to advance the “new southbound policy” include building up the network of overseas Taiwanese businesses, promoting tourism and establishing vocational programs for international students at the high-school level.
The ministry has allocated NT$780 million (US$25.15 million) this year to training Taiwanese students specializing in Southeast Asian markets, NT$60 million to attract international students and NT$160 million to build a partnership platform matching schools and industries.
The ministry estimates an annual 20 percent growth in the number of students from 16 ASEAN and South Asian nations, as well as Australia and New Zealand — the target countries of the Cabinet’s “new southbound policy” — coming to Taiwan from this year until 2020.
The number of students from the 18 countries is expected to grow to 58,000 in 2019, the ministry said.
The ministry is also to establish academic partnerships with education facilities in the 18 countries to introduce Taiwanese students to local institutes and companies to seek job opportunities.
Taiwan should continue its student-exchange program with China on the condition that academic freedom is guaranteed, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said in the wake of the controversy surrounding letters of agreement signed by local universities promising not to teach politically sensitive topics to Chinese students.
The ministry will finish its investigation into how many universities signed such agreements in a few days and take action, Pan said.
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