Island relaxes education policies to attract more candidates and arrest decline
Since 2016, the number of students from the mainland enrolling at universities in Taiwan has declined every year. As a result, the island’s education authority is relaxing its policies to attract more students.
The number of students from the mainland studying for bachelor’s degrees fell to 1,693 in 2016 from 2,024 a year earlier.
Last year, the number fell to 944, a year-on-year decline of 44 percent, according to the University Entrance Committee for Mainland Chinese Students in Taiwan.
In 2011, a guideline issued by the island’s education authority allowed both private and public universities to recruit candidates from six areas of the mainland — Beijing and Shanghai, and the provinces of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian — for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral courses. In 2013, the number of areas was expanded to eight with the addition of the provinces of Liaoning and Hubei.
Nine rules in the guideline applied strictly to students from the mainland — for example, they could not be offered scholarships, were not allowed to work part time, and were not allowed to take a job in Taiwan after graduation.
Xu Weina, a student at Quanzhou Normal University in Fujian province, studied at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan from 2013 to 2014 as part of a program of cooperation under which successful candidates would be awarded a bachelor’s degree by both universities.
“I was interested in the program, because I really wanted to experience something different in Taiwan,” she said.
However, Xu’s time on the island was marred by a lecturer who was rude to her and her mainland peers. Xu thinks his attitude may have been influenced by his political views.
“In class, he referred to us as the ‘Students from China’ and treated us differently. In addition to this personal rejection, we were not allowed to work, and had to leave after graduation because we were not allowed to apply for jobs on the island,” she said.
However things are now changing as a result in the fall in the number of mainland applicants. Chang Hung-te, director-general of the University Entrance Committee for Mainland Chinese Students in Taiwan, told China Times in Taiwan that universities on the island began lowering their application fees this year.
According to the committee, the authorities have also removed or relaxed the nine rules, meaning students from the mainland now can apply for scholarships and take jobs at multinational companies or branches of mainland companies in Taiwan.
While applications from mainland students for bachelor’s degrees are still declining, the number hoping to study for a master’s or a doctorate has risen slightly, from 1,057 in 2016 to 1,325 this year.
“Although the number is rising, it still won’t fill all the vacancies,” Chang said.
“To attract more students, the island has expanded the recruitment pool for master’s degrees and doctorates from 44 mainland universities to 111 this year.”