Less than 60 percent of local college students have an accurate understanding of global affairs, highlighting their limited view of the world, according to a poll released yesterday.
The survey on college students' global views was conducted by National Chengchi University students and released in a discussion forum held by the World Leadership Education Foundation.
A total of 1,285 students from universities across the country filled out the questionnaires on their knowledge about global affairs and opinions about world leaders.
The poll found that students were more interested in local politics and lack sufficient comprehension of global affairs.
Chancellor
In the survey, only 49. 6 percent of the polled knew that the German chancellor is Angela Merkel, while 26.1 percent believed it was Thaksin Shinawatra (the former Thai prime minister) and 14 percent thought it was Tony Blair (the British prime minister).
On the question of which country was recently involved in a war with Israel, 36 percent said it was Palestine, while another 21 percent responded with Iraq. Only 38 percent came up with the right answer, Lebanon.
What most students did know was that Wang Chien-ming (
Still, 1.9 percent selected Kuo Hung-chih (
As for domestic news, only 52.2 percent of respondents knew that the diplomatic ally that President Chen Shui-bian (
Commenting on the result of the survey, political scientist Emile Sheng (
Economic constraint
Sheng added that the number of students planning to study abroad was also dropping -- a trend that he found worrisome as many cited economic concerns as a factor.
Tom Chou (
Additional reporting by CNA
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