The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), yesterday pledged to increase the subsidy for private university students’ tuition and miscellaneous fees to NT$50,000 (US$1,599) if elected.
The average tuition at public universities is about NT$62,000 per year, while that of private universities is about NT$110,000 — a gap of almost NT$50,000, the Ministry of Education said.
In June, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, said that the government would give students at private universities a subsidy equal to “at least half” of the gap between public and private university tuition fees, or about NT$25,000 per year.
Photo: EPA-EFE, Ritchie B. Tongo
Hou yesterday also proposed an interest-free loan for students.
Citing statistics from the Ministry of Labor saying that one-quarter of the nation’s college graduates earn the minimum wage as a starting salary, Hou asked how young people could be expected to make ends meet.
Nearly 80 percent of students at private universities — three times more than those at national universities — face paying off a student loan, he said.
Student loans might last from eight years to as many as 14 years, a large burden on young people, he said.
Earlier in the week, Hou pledged to allocate NT$10 billion to raise the starting salary for voluntary troops to give people an incentive people to serve in the armed forces.
The money would be spent on increasing the salary of military personnel by NT$10,000 per month, in particular those serving on the front lines and in combat units, which have a personnel shortage, he said.
Another main reason young Taiwanese are reluctant to serve in the military is that most Taiwanese respect military personnel far less than in other countries, Hou said.
If he becomes president, he would make Armed Forces Day on Sept. 3 a public holiday and rename it “Showing Respect to the Armed Forces Day,” so that military personnel receive the respect they deserve, he said.
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