New Southbound Policy for Higher Education! Southeast Asian students come to study in Taiwan

According to the "4wayvoice" report, with the gradual rise of Southeast Asian countries, there are more and more students studying abroad, and the number of students coming to Taiwan to study has also increased every year. In 2020, there will be more than 90,000 overseas students in Taiwan, among which Vietnamese students are the most. The number of students in Taiwan has increased from more than 4,000 to 17,000 in the last five years.

The Taiwan Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City (駐胡志明市辦事處) held an online information session for Vietnamese students who are about to go to Taiwan. The briefing attracted about 500 Vietnamese students. The Director of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Education of the Ministry of Education Li Yen-Yi (李彥儀) gave an online lecture to the Vietnamese students through a video. She said: "Now there are more than 100,000 children of new immigrants. Taiwan’s primary and secondary schools have been teaching the Vietnamese language since 2018.

This shows that Taiwan gives importance to the learning of new immigrants’ children to expand their international horizons.” Taiwan’s policies on garbage sorting, disposal and littering were also introduced. Vietnamese students are also reminded to keep a certain distance from people when queuing, and not to be too close and also to not stick their chopsticks on the top of the rice when eating.

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The Taiwan Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh city introduced Taiwanese culture to Vietnamese students. Photo/Retrieved from the "Liberty Times"

As for the COVID-19 epidemic that caused the students to miss the school opening as scheduled, Ou Chi-Hsi (歐季曦), the secretary of the Taiwan Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the Ministry of Education (MOE, 教育部) has launched a study program. The program allows students to register for school first so they can study remotely in Vietnam or during their quarantine period, and later, they can catch up with the courses.

In fact, it is not just Vietnam, but the number of Malaysian students studying in Taiwan has also increased every year. Malaysia Hua Jen High School (華仁中學) recently held an online pre-departure seminar for children who are about to go to Taiwan to study. The pre-departure meeting will be conducted by the director of Hua Jen High School Counseling Office and the senior professor of Hua Jen High School’s Taiwan Alumni Association. They discussed what to prepare before going to Taiwan, the difference in the living environment between Taiwan and Malaysia and other issues, including passports, vaccinations for COVID-19, airline ticket processing and visa processing, etc., and remind the students to always pay attention to relevant information, including checking emails regularly.

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Indonesian students come to study in Taiwan, and the number is increasing. Photo/Retrieved from "Central News Agency"

As for Indonesia, the MOE announced the number of people from new Southbound countries who came to Taiwan in 2020. The total number of Indonesian students has also increased year by year, making it Taiwan’s fourth largest source of overseas students. From the recruitment of 4,394 Indonesian students in 2015, the number has reached 13,804 by 2020. In addition, Indonesian students like Taiwan’s engineering department the most, followed by business management and information technology. For them, the top three schools to study in Taiwan are the Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology (健行科大), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (台科大), and National Cheng Kung University (成功大學).

Taiwan’s Minister of Economy, Wang Mei-Hua (王美花), attended the "2021 New ASEAN, New Taiwanese Businessmen, New Opportunities" (2021新東協，新台商，新機會) forum and stated that Taiwan has recently reviewed and relaxed border measures to allow international students to study in Taiwan. Statistics from the MOE also show that the number of students from the new Southbound countries who want to come to Taiwan to study continues to increase. In the future, the training and exchange of talents between Taiwan and the new Southbound countries can establish long-term cooperation between the countries. In addition, the National Development Council (國發會) is hoping to propose emerging laws and policies to attract talents from different countries to come to Taiwan, which the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA, 經濟部) will be looking forward to.