The Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) program has been an important part of the Ministry of National Defense’s enlistment drive for several years, but Taiwan’s low birthrate complicates efforts to recruit students.
The ministry provides a full subsidy for tuition fees and accommodation, along with miscellaneous expenses for students who enlist for the ROTC program. It also grants a NT$12,000 (US$393) monthly stipend to cover living expenses. Students are not subject to the same constraints on movement that other military recruits experience.
Despite these perks having made the program popular in the past, it has become increasingly difficult over the past few years to recruit new students.
The low birthrate is not only affecting military enlistment, the wider university student recruitment system is also feeling the pinch, which also affects the ROTC’s ability to attract students.
One university that is bucking the trend is the Nanya Institute of Technology, whose ROTC department is the nation’s only civilian military affairs program, which has come back from the brink of closure to thrive once again.
The Nanya Institute not only avails itself of ROTC program subsidies, it also provides subsidies for expenses in the first year of university not covered by ministry grants, so its ROTC students and other military students can complete their studies without financial worries.
In addition, ROTC students on the Nanya course are not required to attend classes on Saturdays, giving them more free time on weekends to follow their own pursuits and even take part-time jobs, as other university students do.
Kaohsiung’s Fooyin University in recent years has also recruited many students through its ROTC enlistment program.
The defense ministry should concentrate its resources on one education institution each in the north, central and southern regions of Taiwan, as well as along the Hualien-Taitung corridor, and make those four schools major ROTC centers.
Promoting those universities and the programs would fend off the negative effect of the nation’s declining population and reinforce Taiwan’s national defense capability.
Chen Hung-hui is a former university military instructor.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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