Taiwan reaches out to international students
Kathrin Hille | Sunday, 8 June 2008
TAIWAN has had its fair share of gloom and doom over the past decade. Frustrated by a government that has given priority to protecting the island from overdependence on China, rather than on benefiting from globalisation, business leaders, analysts, politicians and commentators complain that Taiwan is closing itself off, becoming economically marginalised and decreasingly attractive to foreigners.
Human resource experts fear that, as a result, the island has less internationally competitive talent to offer.
That trend, however, looks likely to change. A quiet revolution has been taking place on Taiwan's campuses that is set to make the island's job market more international than ever. Over the past 10 years, the number of foreign students enrolled in higher education institutions in Taiwan has grown more than fivefold and has topped 26,000 this year.
Overseas Taiwanese students -- typically the American-born children of Taiwanese parents who want their offspring to learn the ancestral language -- used to account for the bulk of this group.
The strongest growth now comes from "real foreigners" who are picking the island as an alternative option, especially for post-graduate studies.
"It was a gamble, but it paid off," says Lloyd Roberts, who graduated last year from the executive MBA programme at two years old. "My parents were not really pleased that I chose a programme that they had never heard of and that was not internationally recognised," he recalls. But last year, NCTU's MBA programme received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a widely-recognised accrediting agency in this field.
Mr Roberts is only one of many. The number of "real" foreign students enrolled on degree programmes in Taiwanese universities has more than doubled to 5,259 over the past four years.
During the same period, enrolments for language education -- mostly students of mandarin from universities in Japan, South Korea, the US or Europe who come for a year or two -- rose by only 33 per cent. The rise in enrolments from overseas Taiwanese students was only 7.3 per cent.
So clearly, we have been "making great inroads in achieving genuine internationalisation of our universities," says Tseng Shu-hsien, an official at the office of international affairs at National Taiwan University (NTU), the island's oldest university.
NTU has 439 foreign students, up from 258 in 2004. It is accepting students who are doing dual degrees with partner schools in France and Japan.
The first wave of foreign students came from among those who had had exposure to Taiwan and were fluent in the local language. Mr Roberts has lived on the island for more than a decade and wanted to enroll in a programme that would allow him to continue his day job while he studied.
"On the first day in class, it was like a splash of fresh water on my face because I realised that everything was in Chinese," he says.
Since then, local universities have greatly expanded English language courses and programmes on offer.
"It is nice to have those who are in Taiwan anyway, but the foreign students we want and need are others," says Edward Chou, dean of the college of commerce at National Chengchi University (NCCU).
NCCU and NTU are also pushing themselves further out into the world by taking part in education fairs in Europe and the US in order to let prospective students know about Taiwan's existence as a location for tertiary education.
As a result, the make-up of NCCU's international student body has changed. Among the 405 international students currently enrolled, more than a third now come from the US and Europe. This is providing more geographically balanced classes where, traditionally, students from various parts of Asia have been dominant. The business school and social sciences absorb most of the foreign entrants.
The geographical balance could, however, tilt again if the government were to let Chinese citizens study in Taiwan. The current authorities have refused to take that step, arguing that a flood of Chinese applicants would deprive local high school graduates of their right to a university education.
But human resources experts argue that Chinese students could form a talent pool Taiwan badly needs. With college admission rates on the mainland in the low single digits, many of the country's best and brightest do not get a chance to attend university.
"The competition for these bright minds has already started, with universities from Singapore to Australia wooing them," says Mr Chou. "But actually Taiwan would be the natural place for them to come and they could help us strengthen our claim to become a centre for research and development in Asia-Pacific."
Under syndication arrangement with FE
Human resource experts fear that, as a result, the island has less internationally competitive talent to offer.
That trend, however, looks likely to change. A quiet revolution has been taking place on Taiwan's campuses that is set to make the island's job market more international than ever. Over the past 10 years, the number of foreign students enrolled in higher education institutions in Taiwan has grown more than fivefold and has topped 26,000 this year.
Overseas Taiwanese students -- typically the American-born children of Taiwanese parents who want their offspring to learn the ancestral language -- used to account for the bulk of this group.
The strongest growth now comes from "real foreigners" who are picking the island as an alternative option, especially for post-graduate studies.
"It was a gamble, but it paid off," says Lloyd Roberts, who graduated last year from the executive MBA programme at two years old. "My parents were not really pleased that I chose a programme that they had never heard of and that was not internationally recognised," he recalls. But last year, NCTU's MBA programme received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a widely-recognised accrediting agency in this field.
Mr Roberts is only one of many. The number of "real" foreign students enrolled on degree programmes in Taiwanese universities has more than doubled to 5,259 over the past four years.
During the same period, enrolments for language education -- mostly students of mandarin from universities in Japan, South Korea, the US or Europe who come for a year or two -- rose by only 33 per cent. The rise in enrolments from overseas Taiwanese students was only 7.3 per cent.
So clearly, we have been "making great inroads in achieving genuine internationalisation of our universities," says Tseng Shu-hsien, an official at the office of international affairs at National Taiwan University (NTU), the island's oldest university.
NTU has 439 foreign students, up from 258 in 2004. It is accepting students who are doing dual degrees with partner schools in France and Japan.
The first wave of foreign students came from among those who had had exposure to Taiwan and were fluent in the local language. Mr Roberts has lived on the island for more than a decade and wanted to enroll in a programme that would allow him to continue his day job while he studied.
"On the first day in class, it was like a splash of fresh water on my face because I realised that everything was in Chinese," he says.
Since then, local universities have greatly expanded English language courses and programmes on offer.
"It is nice to have those who are in Taiwan anyway, but the foreign students we want and need are others," says Edward Chou, dean of the college of commerce at National Chengchi University (NCCU).
NCCU and NTU are also pushing themselves further out into the world by taking part in education fairs in Europe and the US in order to let prospective students know about Taiwan's existence as a location for tertiary education.
As a result, the make-up of NCCU's international student body has changed. Among the 405 international students currently enrolled, more than a third now come from the US and Europe. This is providing more geographically balanced classes where, traditionally, students from various parts of Asia have been dominant. The business school and social sciences absorb most of the foreign entrants.
The geographical balance could, however, tilt again if the government were to let Chinese citizens study in Taiwan. The current authorities have refused to take that step, arguing that a flood of Chinese applicants would deprive local high school graduates of their right to a university education.
But human resources experts argue that Chinese students could form a talent pool Taiwan badly needs. With college admission rates on the mainland in the low single digits, many of the country's best and brightest do not get a chance to attend university.
"The competition for these bright minds has already started, with universities from Singapore to Australia wooing them," says Mr Chou. "But actually Taiwan would be the natural place for them to come and they could help us strengthen our claim to become a centre for research and development in Asia-Pacific."
Under syndication arrangement with FE