The Ministry of Education on Thursday asked universities to assist Ukrainian students following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian military on Thursday launched an attack on Ukraine shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in the eastern European country.
There are 72 Ukrainian students in Taiwan, the ministry said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
It asked universities to contact students to provide assistance and help them get in touch with their families, Department of International and Cross-strait Education Director Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀) said.
Wang Chun-cheng (王俊程), vice president of Student Affairs at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), said that there are three Ukrainian students studying at the university, all of whom have been in contact with their families.
The school’s counseling center is to contact students to offer support, and allocate emergency allowances, he added.
NTHU also started the Neighbor Program to allow Taiwanese studying in Ukraine to return and continue their education in Taiwan.
The university said that undergraduate and graduate students would be welcome to attend short-term exchange programs.
Outgoing university president Hocheng Hong (賀陳弘) and Kao Wei-yuan (高為元), who is to take over as president in May, jointly launched the program to help Taiwanese students continue their education amid the conflict.
This is not the university’s first education initiative launched in response to an international crisis.
At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many high-school graduates to shelve their study-abroad plans, even though they had been accepted to universities overseas. NTHU established Academy For All to allow the students to experience life on campus before they start their studies abroad.
NTHU vice president for academic affairs Wu Yung-hsien (巫勇賢) said the Neighbor Program allows students coming back from Ukraine to take courses following the guidelines for students from its sister universities.
No tuition is required, he said, adding that students can sign up for all the courses offered to undergraduate and graduate students, including experimental, practical and sports classes.
The university would assist interested students with course selection, Wu said.
Although the new semester began last week, Wu said that affected students could arrange makeup sessions with their instructors.
Students who are unable to return can take free online courses offered by NTHU, he added.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
RSS