The Ministry of Education is drafting an amendment that would allow “new immigrants” to enroll in local universities without taking entrance exams, with the policy expected to take effect in the second half of next year at the earliest.
There are more than 650,000 new immigrants who hold Republic of China (ROC) identification cards, exceeding the number of Taiwan’s Aborigines and making them the fifth-largest population group in the nation, the ministry said on Saturday.
Before an immigrant becomes a naturalized ROC citizen — a process that usually takes four to eight years — they can enroll in Taiwanese universities like other foreign students by using their high-school academic record from their home country.
Photo taken from the National Immigration Agency Web site
However, after they are naturalized, new immigrants who want to study at local universities have to take the college entrance exam like any other Taiwanese student, the ministry said, adding that the exams can be challenging for those who did not finish high school in Taiwan.
To offer naturalized citizens better opportunities to study in Taiwan, the ministry is drafting an amendment to Article 25 of the University Act (大學法) to facilitate their enrollment in higher-education programs, it said.
Each university department would be given an additional 2 percent quota for admitting naturalized students, in addition to its original authorized quota of students, the draft amendment says.
Yang Hsiao-mei (楊小梅), who moved from Vietnam to Taiwan with her family when she was nine, said that Taiwan’s college entrance exams are difficult for immigrants.
Yang, previously director of the academic affairs office at New Taipei City’s Golden Dragon Primary School, is to become the nation’s first elementary-school principal from an immigrant background.
She praised the proposed amendment, saying it would motivate naturalized citizens to pursue higher education, which would be beneficial for their work prospects.
Aside from increasing the admission quota, the ministry should also have supplementary educational resources ready for naturalized citizens, National Parent Education Volunteer Association chairman Wu Fu-pin (吳福濱) said.
The quota for immigrant students is additional and would not affect the rights of Taiwanese students, former Shih Chien University president Michael Chen (陳振貴) said.
Chinese spouses, who are governed by cross-strait regulations, would still be required to take the exams to enroll in Taiwan’s universities, he added.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS