The number of Indian students in Taiwan surged by more than 110 percent from 2016 to 2019, demonstrating potential for expanding bilateral education exchanges, India Taipei Association Director-General Gourangalal Das said.
The Ministry of Education has established more than 20 Taiwan Education Centers throughout India, including at premier educational institutions, Das said in an interview with the Taipei Times and its sister paper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times.
The centers not only help Indian students learn Mandarin, but also expose them to higher education opportunities in Taiwan, he said.
India is one of the world’s largest sources of foreign students, with more than 750,000 Indians studying abroad in 2019, he said.
“The phenomenon of Indian students coming to Taiwan for higher education is somewhat new, but it is a trend with a lot of promise,” he said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Indian students in Taiwan grew by more than 110 percent from 2016 to 2019 to nearly 3,000, he added.
Generous scholarships offered by Taiwan’s universities are another attraction for students, he said.
Taiwan’s goal to become bilingual in Chinese and English by 2030 also provides incentives to Indian students, he said.
“India’s new education policy adopted last year has further liberalized collaboration between Indian and foreign universities, and we hope to see Taiwanese universities take advantage of this by forging meaningful collaboration,” Das said.
The number of Taiwan Education Centers in India has increased to 21, after the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India last month signed agreements with two more Indian universities.
Representative to India Baushuan Ger (葛葆萱) has encouraged Indian academics to apply for research grants for joint studies from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The ministry and its Indian counterpart, the Indian Department of Science and Technology, every year jointly call for research projects extending over two to three years, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it and the Indian Council of Social Science Research in 2019 signed a memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation in humanities and social sciences.
Since 2018, National Chung Cheng University has been funded by the ministry to operate the Taiwan-India Joint Research Center on Artificial Intelligence, hoping to boost its industrial partnership, such as with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, it said.
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