“Go south” is a key policy of the new government, and it has established a “New Southbound Policy Office” to push the policy.
Several government officials have pushed for the government to place greater importance on Southeast Asia and proposed various ways on how this can be achieved.
Indeed, the whole world is turning its focus to the development and potential of ASEAN states, with major economies investing in these nations.
Great minds think alike, and many Taiwanese universities have also adopted a southbound policy in recent years, as they try to attract outstanding Southeast Asian students.
Last week, nearly 30 universities and academic institutions — including National Tsing Hua University, National Chengchi University, China Medical University and Tamkang University — participated in the Taiwan Higher Education Fair in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Organized by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, the fair was a show of support for the government’s southbound policy. Taiwanese school representatives also visited four universities near the city.
With a population of 68 million and a land area of more than 510,000km2, Thailand is a leading member of ASEAN. Geographically, it lies at the center of ASEAN, highlighting its importance in the region’s development. It also boasts a relatively high level of education.
According to the QS World University Rankings 2015/2016, Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University ranked No. 253 in the world and Mahidol University ranked No. 295, while five of its schools ranked among the world’s top 700 universities.
Taiwan still has an edge in the quality of education compared with Thailand, but the gap is not substantial.
The educational attainment of many students from Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations is high and such students are intelligent enough to study at Taiwanese universities that suit them best.
As the title of a 2005 bestseller states, The World is Flat, as talent and resources are flowing across the world.
To maintain its competitive edge, Taiwan should not only cultivate globally competitive talent, it should also work to attract people from other parts of the world to join its talent pool.
Making use of an advantage offered by its excellent standard of higher education, the nation should try to encourage outstanding students from ASEAN nations to study in Taiwan. This is likely to be the best way for Taiwan to attract talent.
The enrollment of outstanding foreign students would help increase the talent pool in the nation and create a more international atmosphere on university campuses. For Taiwanese students, that would serve as great peer education and a stimulus, and it would help schools achieve their goal of cultivating talent with an international outlook.
Outstanding students should be allowed to stay in Taiwan after graduation to enhance the Taiwan-ASEAN partnership.
Taiwan must continue its efforts abroad to attract foreign talent.
Chen Sinn-wen is vice president of global affairs at National Tsing Hua University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS