The number of foreign students attending Taiwanese universities last year dropped 9.46 percent from 2019, mainly due to a marked decline in the number of Chinese students, the National Audit Office said in a report.
Last year, there were 116,038 foreign students — 67,299 degree students and 48,739 non-degree students — a decrease of 12,119, or 9.46 percent, from 128,157 in 2019, the report said.
China in 2020 stopped allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan, saying that COVID-19 pandemic controls and “the cross-strait situation” were the reasons for the change. Chinese who had already come to Taiwan were allowed finish their studies.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Regarding the number of Chinese studying in Taiwan, there were 16,696 visiting students and 8,353 degree students in 2019, four visiting students and 6,032 degree students in 2020, zero visiting students and 4,293 degree students in 2021, 22 visiting students and 3,121 degree students in 2022, and 2,523 visiting students and 2,128 degree students last year, the report said, citing data from the Mainland Affairs Council.
From January to June this year, there were 953 visiting Chinese students, and the number of degree students from China is projected to decrease to zero by the end of this month, it said.
To address Taiwan’s low birthrate and key industries’ demand for talent, the Ministry of Education in 2022 launched a program to increase the number of Chinese students (including from Hong Kong and Macau) and other foreign students in line with the National Development Council’s immigration policy, the report said.
The goal of the program is to increase the number of foreigners studying at departments and institutes related to Taiwan’s key industries and retain talent, it said.
However, 79 percent of foreign students, or 91,673, came from 10 nations or regions last year — India, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, the US and Vietnam — and no mechanism has yet been created to track the employment of foreign students after graduation, it said.
The office has asked the ministry to establish an employment tracking mechanism to better evaluate the program’s outcomes, and it is urging subsidized schools to improve their employment counseling services to help top foreign students join Taiwan’s workforce after graduation, the report said.
The ministry should find ways to attract students from other countries and regions, particularly because the number of foreign students has been decreasing for about five academic years, it said.
Overall, the outcomes of the program needs to improve, as enrollment is limited and many foreign students have left school because they failed the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language, the report said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS