A total of 116 academia-industry collaboration programs that could enroll up to 2,120 international students are to be added across Taiwan, with scholarship opportunities and visa assistance available, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
Department of Technological and Vocational Education Director Yang Yu-hui (楊玉惠) gave a briefing on the ministry’s policy at the annual National Conference for University Presidents.
Universities would add 58 new programs, as would vocational schools, with 93 to be in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while 15 are to focus on semiconductors and eight are to be in finance, Yang said.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
In addition, recruitment bases are to be set up in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia by the end of this month, she said.
Taiwan is expected to lose its demographic dividend by 2028, so to achieve an average of 3 percent annual population growth, the nation needs to attract 400,000 immigrants by 2030, she said.
International students in Taiwan are more familiar with the nation and have benefited from its education resources, she said, adding that they could be seen as potential economic migrants and efforts to retain them should be prioritized.
Such efforts include encouraging schools to establish international student divisions, providing basic Mandarin courses, expanding on existing academia-industry collaboration programs and relaxing regulations for international students working in Taiwan, she said.
The ministry is encouraging schools to collaborate with businesses to establish new programs, she said.
The Executive Yuan’s National Development Fund (國發基金) is to provide scholarship funds, while companies are expected to provide subsidies to help with living expenses, she said.
The National Development Council is to mull policies to allow international students to count their time studying in Taiwan toward total duration of stay should they wish to apply for an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate.
International students who receive scholarships would have additional “points” and they would no longer have to file for a work visa under the points system, she said, adding that their applications would be processed directly by the Ministry of Labor.
The points system, or New Scoring Criteria, is implemented by the Ministry of Labor to gauge whether an individual is eligible to work in Taiwan. International students must obtain 70 points out of 190 to be eligible for a work visa.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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