Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) expressed his pride in the country’s vocational education system yesterday and anticipated that junior college vocational schools around the nation would be “stuffed” with Chinese students once they are allowed to enroll in Taiwan’s colleges and universities.
“Taiwanese schools are attractive enough to draw Chinese students,” Wu said at the 44th founding anniversary of Meiho Institute of Technology in Pingtung County.
Taiwan’s vocational education is globally recognized as being of the same quality as that in Germany and Australia, Wu said, saying that National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation is the only school of its kind in the world.
Taichung City-based National Chung Hsing University enjoys a reputation on a par with Japan’s prestigious University of Tokyo in agricultural and biotech research, he said.
Wu said he believes academic exchanges between Taiwan and China will help further ease political tensions, but he also said that safeguards are in place to prevent Chinese students from seizing education resources from local students, as some fear.
The safeguards include restrictions on the number of Chinese students allowed to enter Taiwan, not offering scholarships to Chinese students and prohibiting Chinese students from staying in the country to work after they finish their studies, the minister said.
The ministry has begun a series of 17 separate public hearings around the country on the policy to open its doors to Chinese students and recognize academic credentials from Chinese universities.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
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