Regional
International Brain Circulation Positive for Research
At the recent 2012 Global University Summit [1] held in Chicago this spring, Nick Fowler, managing director of A&G Institutions at Elsevier, presented the preliminary findings of “Global Brain Migration,” a report that tracks the movement of scientific talent around the world over the past 15 years. The data provide a lens on how international students and faculty are reshaping the global science and research.
While a rising Asia is gaining traction as an emerging research power, the United States still leads the world in measures of scientific impact by a substantial margin. This is partly due to America also remaining by far the leading destination for research scientists emigrating from other countries, and especially so from Asia. More than 50 percent of all foreign PhD graduates in the U.S. come from three countries—China, India, and South Korea—and more than 80 percent of the STEM professors at the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) obtained their PhDs in the U.S. This deep symbiotic relationship between scholarly talent on both sides of the Pacific has existed for more than 20 years, and serves to connect the U.S. to the world’s most dynamic R&D and economic region.
Researchers in the European Union (EU) typically migrate within other EU member countries, but do so at higher rates than Asia/Pacific or U.S. researchers. On a per capita basis, Northern EU countries are extremely productive contributors of high quality papers, with Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Finland leading the pack.
Migrating scientists also contribute to the rise in collaborations, both between researchers in different countries and between those in industry and academia. Canada and the EU have the highest rates of international collaboration with 45 percent or more papers having at least one international co-author. The U.S. rate of international collaboration of around 30 percent is lower by comparison, partially because of the size of its installed research base, but it dominates in industry/academic partnerships, which are shown to produce papers with even greater impact than those with international co-authors.
– The Scientist [2]
August 14, 2012
Gauging the Needs of Students in Transnational Education
Students enrolled on transnational education (TNE) programs – one offered in a different country from where the degree-awarding institution is based – are less concerned about the awarding institution’s reputation and more about flexibility in learning and subject relevance.
The British Council’s Education Intelligence Unit’s Portrait of a Transnational Education Student [3], based on more than 160,000 student responses from 2007 until September 2012, found that students intending to study for a TNE degree valued the practicality of combining study with employment above the reputation, brand or ranking of the awarding institution.
The report noted: “In 2007, universities had to rely more strongly on their brand when entering markets, as TNE in many of its forms was not strictly regulated.
“While this is still true in 2012 in a number of markets, in the past five years there has been significant investment in, media attention around, and legislation developed for distance learning, legitimizing TNE to the point that the actual awarding institution has become much less of a consideration.”
The survey – which did not include students at international branch campuses but included overseas twinning programs, online programs delivered transnationally, and dual or joint degrees – found that enthusiasm for TNE had increased across all regions since 2007. One in four students was considering TNE in some form, whether wholly or partially administered in their home country.
Some of the countries with the highest interest in TNE degrees included Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, the Philippines, Russia and Zambia.
In 2007 graduate students said the third most important reason for choosing a TNE degree was the reputation of the overseas degree and that the qualification should be “recognized by employers.” In 2011 these have been completely replaced by other considerations: that it is cheaper than studying overseas, and that the subject that the student was interested in was available. TNE students, many of whom were employed at the same time, were particularly interested in niche subjects, those that they could not study in their own countries, and which fitted in closely with their career plans.
While the outlook for expansion of TNE courses is good, the most important quality measure for students was the amount of face-to-face teaching, which many students deemed to be ‘irreplaceable.’ More than 90 percent of students interviewed indicated that the biggest area of improvement in TNE was the student experience.
– University World News [4]
September 6, 2012
South Asian Regional University Off to A Slow Start
The South Asian University [5] received a lot of attention in the years leading up to its inauguration, and so it should have as the region’s first cross-border university. However, the Delhi-based institution has been off to a slow start, drawing just 27 students from Bangladesh, 17 from Afghanistan, and equally small numbers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka since it began offering classes two years ago.
Of the nearly 400 seats set aside for Indian students, only 81 have been filled for the eight graduate programs the university offers. An Indian parliamentary committee says that the university was set up in a hurry and that its courses and curriculum can hardly inspire a “sense of South Asian consciousness.” The university’s vice president, Rajiv K. Saxena, rejected such criticism and noted that as many as 2,500 students have applied for the coming academic session.
– The Indian Express [6]
September 10, 2012
Australia
Elite Chinese and Australian Universities Deepen Ties
Australia’s top research universities, collectively known as the Group of Eight [7] (Go8), have extended ties with China’s top tier universities, the China 9 League universities, in a bid to help build “globally mobile students” says Go8 executive director Michael Gallagher.
But competing with elite universities from the United States will remain a challenge, says one China expert, as Chinese students continue to choose universities based on reputation and rankings. “If we’re going to compete on elitism we will always lose to the US,” said James Laurenceson, who is president of the Chinese Economics Society Australia [8], and a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Queensland.
The Group of 8 and China 9 recently reviewed what has been a five-year relationship, and plan to expand on and strengthen the partnership over the next five years. Mutual credit recognition between the institutions is a critical component of the alliance, Mr. Gallagher said. He said the alliance would measure its success by looking at numbers of highly cited co-authored publications, research collaboration and co-investment, and the degree to which there are two-way exchanges of students of staff.
– The Conversation [9]
August 21, 2012
Indians Returning to Australian Universities
In 2011-12, offshore higher education visa issuances to Indians rose 71 percent to 3,994 (although the June quarter saw a 12 percent decline), and while China remains a much bigger market, Indian offshore grants as a percentage of Chinese offshore grants increased from 12 percent to 23 percent last year.
Indian visa grants for university study are still well below their 2007-08 peak of 29,108 but a host of factors point to the potential for significant growth, reports the Australian newspaper. Citing industry professionals in Australian academia, the newspaper points to huge Indian future demand for higher education over the next 10 years and a shortage of domestic university places to meet that demand.
At the same time that university visa issuances are rising, those for students in the vocational and technical fields (VET) are starting to decline after recent changes to immigration rules have blocked the vocational education route to permanent residency. Onshore grants of VET visas to Indians were still rising as recently as last year. In the June quarter, however, onshore VET grants to Indians fell 46 percent, and there are industry reports of offshore refusals in line with a recent government report that Australia should export VET delivery, rather than import VET students. Meanwhile, changes in visa rules have shifted the incentives to higher education with post-study work rights especially appealing to the Indian market.
– The Australian [10]
August 29, 2012
China
Meeting China’s Internationalization Goals
Traditionally, China has attracted two types of foreign students: Mandarin-learners who want professional-level skills, and students from developing countries who want better bachelor’s and master’s programs than the ones offered back home. Now China is looking to attract a broader swath of international students, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Renmin University of China’s International Summer School [11], now in its fourth year, is one of the most ambitious efforts so far to meet China’s goal of bringing half a million foreign students to its shores by 2020. To reach the bold target, the Ministry of Education is pouring money into colleges to establish programs friendly to Americans and other international students.
Programs like Renmin’s are key to that strategy. The summer school mixes domestic and international students and faculty members, and classes are taught in English. The courses also last only a few weeks, which is a popular feature for many foreign students. Short academic programs accounted for more than half of China’s foreign enrollments last year.
Whether China can actually increase the number of international students it attracts by more than 70 percent—293,00 foreigners studied in China last year—remains to be seen. Improvements to university facilities in recent years, have reduced some of the once-frequent complaints by foreigners, but concerns about more intangible issues, like the quality of teaching, have arisen.
The 500,000-student target is part of a package of higher-education reforms that includes inviting overseas universities to open China campuses, attracting foreign academics as visiting scholars, enticing Chinese educated in the United States to return, and coordinating more research with top-ranked universities overseas.
“Internationalization is necessary for universities in China,” says Zhang Xiuqin, who heads the ministry’s Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges [12]. “This isn’t just a challenge for international students. It is also a challenge to reform teaching methodology for Chinese students. Every university has put this on the agenda.”
Although Chinese universities offer some 20,000 courses in English, many are of poor quality, with professors unable to speak well enough to teach effectively. “We’re still at the beginning” of offering such courses, says Ms. Zhang.
While the education ministry hopes that all of its 2,000-plus colleges will eventually attract foreign students, in practice most of its efforts have gone into the elite universities.
One particular focus is the development of master’s programs in English at leading universities such as Tsinghua and Peking Universities, and at Renmin. American colleges with major study-abroad programs are on the ministry’s radar screen as potential partners, says Ms. Zhang.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [13]
August 13, 2012
Graduate Labor Market Remains Weak
China’s labor market has so far proved resilient despite a slowing economy, but for recent university graduates that means little, reports The Wall Street Journal. A mismatch between graduates’ skills and job market needs is resulting in underemployment.
China has shown little evidence of rising unemployment despite a current growth rate that is the slowest since the beginning of the global financial crisis. However, slowing growth underscores a fundamental challenge to China’s economic development: the underemployment of huge numbers of graduates that Chinese colleges are churning out. Experts say many graduates lack skills such as critical thinking, foreign languages and basic office communications that businesses are looking for.
At the same time, China has made only limited gains in remaking its economy so it relies more on services and innovation and less on construction and assembly-line manufacturing. That limits the markets for the lawyers, engineers and accountants that Chinese universities are producing.
A survey of more than 6,000 new graduates conducted last year by Tsinghua University in Beijing said that entry-level salaries of 69 percent of college graduates are lower than those of the migrant workers who come from the countryside to work at Chinese factories, a figure that government statistics currently put at about 2,200 yuan ($345) a month. Graduates from lower-level universities make an average of only 1,903 yuan a month, it said. The employment rate of China’s college graduates last year was 90 percent, according to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and MyCOS Research Institute, a Beijing-based education-consulting firm. But only 47 percent of the 256,000 Chinese graduates surveyed said they feel satisfied in their current job.
China’s universities have graduated more than 39 million undergraduates or specialized degree-holders over the past decade, according to the Ministry of Education. People with some college education now account for about 8.9 percent of China’s population, according to 2010 government data. While that’s a much smaller proportion than the 36.7 percent of the adult population in the U.S, it’s a sharp rise from China’s 3.6 percent in 2000.
– The Wall Street Journal [14]
August 22, 2012
Shanghai Looks to Increase International Student Population to 70,000 by 2015
Shanghai is encouraging foreign students to study at local universities with a package that includes scholarships and language training programs. Municipal officials hope the number of foreign students will increase to 70,000 – a 45 percent gain – by 2015.
According to a 2011-15 plan devised by the Shanghai educational authorities, the municipality will establish a comprehensive scholarship system to encourage outstanding students to study in the city. According to the plan, which was launched in late August, the city will increase the number of government-funded scholarships and add a full scholarship for undergraduates. The city is also encouraging universities, enterprises and other social bodies to establish scholarships and funds for deserving foreign students.
In July, the Tohee International Student Village [15], one of the city’s biggest international student dorm communities, joined some universities to launch the Tohee International Students Service Fund. The fund will cover apartment rentals for students during their four years of study. Beneficiaries will mainly be those who excel academically and are from needy families.
In 2011, there were approximately 47,700 overseas students in Shanghai, but only a third of them were in long-term degree programs. The plan’s goal is to increase that ratio to 70 percent by 2015.
– China Daily [16]
August 30, 2012
43% of Shanghai High School Students Intend on Studying Abroad
More than four in 10 students in key, city-level high schools are considering studying overseas as undergraduates, according to a survey released in August by the Shanghai Education Commission.
A total of 43 percent of the respondents said they intend to study abroad for undergraduate study, while 42 percent said they will study at domestic universities, according to the survey covering hundreds of students from 50 key, city-level high schools. The remaining 11 percent said they would do what their parents told them to.
The United States and Europe are considered the most popular overseas destinations, with the strength of faculty and reputation listed as the most important factors. Of the students, 73 percent included the U.S. as a potential destination, with 58 percent including European countries. Some 47 percent of students said universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were on their list.
– Shanghai Daily [17]
August 27, 2012
Chinese Universities Attracting More Foreign Degree Students
Chinese universities are attracting more foreign students for degree programs, not just short-term study abroad programs, according to official figures. Top universities in major metro areas, in particular are attracting full degree students.
This year, for example, Peking University has 1,500 new international students – nearly 900 of whom have enrolled in degree programs (359 undergraduate, 367 master, 75 doctoral). The total international student body at the top-ranked institution is north of 9,000, with 3,300 considered long-term students and 2,200 on a degree track.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that over 290,000 overseas students studied in China in 2011, a 10.3 percent increase since 2010. Among the students, 118,837 of them are studying for a degree, accounting for 40.6 percent of the overall international student population, which has increased 10.6 percent from 2010.
– China Daily [18]
September 1, 2012
India
Overseas Universities Look Elsewhere as Foreign Universities Bill Languishes Again
After it seemed that several long-delayed proposals to overhaul higher education in India would become law, local media is reporting that most of them will again be put on the backburner.
A bill that would make accreditation of universities mandatory was bypassed due to political opposition, while a bill that would strengthen oversight of university admissions and other activities, in an effort to curb unfair practices, also looks likely to be sidelined in the current parliamentary session. Furthermore, the government has decided not to push forward with the much-stalled bill that would govern the rules surrounding the operations of foreign institutions in India. A separate bill, which would allow the central government to establish universities focused on innovation and research, is on the current parliamentary agenda, reports [19] The Wall Street Journal.
Britain’s Times Higher Education speculates that the non-movement on the foreign providers bill adds to a growing sense that India is not friendly to foreign investment.
Kapil Sibal, India’s minister of human resource development and the man who introduced the legislation in 2010, said he wanted more not-for-profit foreign engagement in higher education.
“But neither UPA [the United Progressive Alliance ruling coalition] members [of parliament] nor leaders from the opposition seem to be in favor of it,” Mr Sibal said.
It is now unlikely that his department will try to get the bill through parliament during the monsoon session, which began in August.
According to the Association of Indian Universities [20], 631 foreign institutions were operating in the country in 2010, either from their home campuses or by twinning with a local partner. The University Grants Commission [21] – the funding body for higher education in India – is now considering allowing institutions that feature in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings or the Shanghai Jiaotong Academic Ranking of World Universities to collaborate with the top 100 Indian institutions to initiate accredited dual and joint degrees.
– Times Higher Education [22]
August 16, 2012
Indians Increasingly Pursuing Undergraduate Medical Education in China and Russia
Tough competition, a limited number of places, and the rising costs of medical education are pushing Indian students to look overseas to countries like China and Russia, in lieu of more traditional international education destinations in the West reports University World News.
More than 8,000 Indian students enrolled to study medicine in China in 2010, while consultants estimate that seven out of 10 mobile Indian medical students are choosing China for undergraduate medical education. Many are also choosing Russia and other former Soviet countries.
Affordability and easier admission standards are reportedly the two driving factors attracting Indians to Chinese and Russian universities. Compared to the U.S., UK and other European countries, the cost of medical education in countries like China and Russia is much lower, varying from US$3,400 to US$6,000 per year. Indian students have to satisfy minimum qualifications but are not required to take admissions tests for either Chinese or Russian universities, which is a big attraction for many students.
With many universities in China and Russia now offering medical instruction in English, there is less of a language barrier to overcome. Students are expected to intern in both China and Russia, but after five years in country taking language classes, communication at that point should not be an issue.
China opened medical education to Indian students in 2004, with four universities offering instruction in English. The number approved by the Chinese government and the Medical Council of India [23] (MCI) has since grown to 50 universities. Indian students completing an MBBS degree in a foreign country have to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination [24] (FMGE) before they can register with the MCI.
At the graduate level, options are more limited as India recognizes graduate medical degrees from only five countries – the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A recent Planning Commission report highlighted that India is short of 600,000 doctors, a million nurses and 200,000 dental surgeons. Indian doctors, however, form 5 percent of the medical workforce in developed countries.
– University World News [25]
September 9, 2012
Number of Indians Studying Abroad Jumps More Than 250% in a Decade
The number of Indians going abroad for higher education increased 256 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore [26] (IIM-B), one of India’s top business schools. Another study, by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, a noted Indian industrial body, said in September that the more than 600,000 Indian students now enrolled in foreign universities cost India US$17 billion a year in lost revenue.
The latter study suggested that good-quality foreign universities should be encouraged to come to India to keep foreign-exchange funds in the country and because the “opening of the higher education [sector] will result in providing 30-40 million additional jobs in the field of education alone.”
The IIM-B findings suggested that the profile of the internationally mobile Indian student is changing. Traditionally, north Indians have been attracted to universities in Europe, but increasingly students from Gujarat as well as the southern states are enrolling in institutions in those countries. The study, ‘Indian student mobility to selected European countries: An Overview,’ is part of a research project financed by the European Union.
– Economic Times [27]
September 9, 2012
Malaysia
Visa Standards Tightened for International Students
Malaysia’s Higher Education Ministry is imposing new requirements on foreign students as part of an effort to tighten up on migration fraud and student quality standards.
Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said these include requiring all foreign students to take out medical insurance, issuance of a standard student card, and proof of acceptance from a higher education institution before they can apply for a visa through the Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS).
He added that foreign students would also need to take Bahasa Malaysia during the first year of their studies to help them interact better with Malaysians. Khaled said these measures would ensure that only genuine foreign students came to Malaysia to study. He added that EMGS, a wholly owned company of the ministry, would be responsible for monitoring, overseeing and coordinating the promotion and marketing of Malaysian higher education as well as the recruitment of and support services for international students.
There are currently 95,000 foreign students in the country, according to the minister.
– AsiaOne
August 26, 2012
Myanmar
Technical Universities to Reopen After 24 Years
In a bid to improve much-needed science and technology capacity in Myanmar, the government has announced that it will reopen two technological universities – in Yangon and Mandalay – that were closed by the military junta more than two decades ago in 1988.
Myanmar’s Science and Technology Minister Aye Myint said the two universities, Yangon Technology University [28] (YTU) and Mandalay Technology University [29] (MTU), as well as the newer Yangon Computer University [30] and Mandalay Computer University, would open before others under the country’s new Centers of Excellence program to upgrade higher education institutions.
The government had previously designated four universities – Yangon University, Yangon Institute of Economics, Yangon Institute of Technology and Mandalay University – as centers of excellence to be improved in collaboration with foreign institutions. But the country’s urgent priority is to start quality science and technical training programs, which will only produce their first graduates in six years’ time.
The institutions will reopen in time for the 2012-13 academic year in October with a new academic system that will lead to a bachelor of engineering degree after six years of study. This is a departure from the current system in universities where engineering degrees are obtained in three stages: first by obtaining an Association of Graduate Technology University degree after two years of study, then another two years to obtain a bachelor of technology qualification, then a further two years of study for a bachelor of engineering.
Computer studies universities currently run broad four-year programs that include a large number of subjects. Under the new system, students will specialize in only one subject for five years.
– University World News [31]
August 17, 2012
Higher Education Bill Thwarted By Opposition
University World News reports that in a major upset, a higher education bill sponsored by the Education Ministry was rejected during the final stages of its passage through Myanmar’s Hluttaw, or parliament, after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other legislators criticized it. It is the first time that the lower house has scrapped an entire bill rather than amending it.
A new bill to increase university autonomy and place institutions on the road to international competitiveness will be drafted by legislators after the proposed bill was thrown out in late July because it would not allow universities enough freedom. Amendments would not be sufficient, Aung San Suu Kyi said, requesting parliament “to bring about a bill that is more suitable, for this country, this era and this world”.
Suspension of the ministry’s bill would “enable the Hluttaw to discuss a higher education bill that is more comprehensive, brings more benefit to the country and represents the voice of the students,” said Thein Nyunt, the MP responsible for putting forward the eleventh-hour motion to scrap the bill.
Union Education Minister Mya Aye, who had presented the bill to parliament in early July, refuted the criticisms and said universities under the ministry were “not far off” being autonomous. He pointed to plans for Yangon University to initiate contacts with John Hopkins University in the United States.
– University World News [32]
August 23, 2012
Singapore
50% of School Leavers Will Have Access to Publicly Funded University Places by 2012
As many as half of Singapore’s college-age population will have access to a publicly funded university place by 2020. The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and SIM University (UniSIM) will offer the additional places. Expansion of the two institutions will grow publicly funded full-time university places for Singaporeans by 3,000 to 16,000 by 2020, according to current government plans.
The committee tasked with reviewing the university sector said the expansion in university places was carefully calibrated to ensure that quality will not be compromised and that the labor market will be able to absorb the growth in the skilled labor pool. In announcing the plan, Senior Minister of State for Education, and Information, Communications and the Arts, Lawrence Wong said Singapore is trying to pioneer a distinct applied degree pathway that fits Singapore’s needs.
SIT will be given autonomous status and award its own degrees. It will take in A-level, International Baccalaureate and polytechnic students and offer what’s called a Cooperative Education Program, which would include undergraduate work placements. UniSIM will also help to expand the university sector via the applied degree pathway, after careful consultations with industry and business to see where their human resource needs lie.
– Channel News Asia [33]
August 28, 2012
South Korea
Attracting A Growing Number of Foreign Brains
The Korean government has introduced various initiatives in recent years designed to internationalize Korea’s education sector. Most recently, it unified a range of government scholarship programs under the name of “Global Korea Scholarship [34],” expanded the reach of the Test of Proficiency in Korean [35], and launched “CAMPUS Asia,” or Collective Action for Mobility Program of Students in Asia program, which is an East Asian version of the Erasmus Mundus program. Thanks to these efforts, the number of international students in Korea has grown from 17,000 in 2004 to 89,000 in 2011.
However, much still remains to be done, according to a recent article in the Korea Herald. The English-language newspaper points out that one of the problems is that the rapid growth in university recruitment efforts has resulted in a lower quality of education and experience for those students. In addition, Chinese students account for more than 60 percent of total international students resulting in a lack of campus diversity.
With an aim of achieving both quantitative expansion and qualitative management of the international student body, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology established the “Study Korea 2020 Project” to recruit foreign students to Korea strategically, to help their successful settlement in Korea, and to promote continued “pro-Korean” networking among them. The goal of this project is to bring 200,000 outstanding students to Korea by 2020.
With regards to quality, the government introduced the International Education Quality Assurance System in 2011 to provide systematic support and management for foreign students. So far, the ministry has evaluated the ability of 350 higher education institutions to manage international students in terms of international students’ dropout rate and support staff numbers.
– Korea Herald [36]
August 28, 2012
Sri Lanka
Universities Shuttered then Reopened While Lectures Remain on Strike Throughout
Nearly 5,000 lecturers went on strike in early July, crippling the countries state-run universities and eventually leading the government to shutter all 15 universities and six institutes from August 22 before unexpectedly ordering them to reopen in early September. Lecturers remained on strike after the order to reopen, continuing to call for a 20 percent salary increase and an increase in expenditures on education from the current 1.9 percent of GDP to 6 percent.
Now protesters say they are in a struggle to protect free education, which was introduced in the mid-1940s but is now widely accepted to be in danger. The government fears that protesters, which have spread beyond the teaching faculty, are trying to instigate an “Arab Spring” style revolution in Sri Lanka. S.B. Dissanayake, the minister for higher education, insists that university lecturers are entangled in a plot to bring about regime change, reports The Economist. University lecturers have themselves dubbed their trade-union campaign an “Academic Spring [37].”
The closing down of 21 universities and educational institutes was strongly criticized, even by pro-government private newspapers such as the Island. An editoria [38]l of theirs urged the president to intervene. Others too are speaking up [39] for students whose exams—and graduation dates—are now delayed.
– The Economist [40]
August 24, 2012
Taiwan
Cabinet Looks to Loosen Regulations on Hiring Foreign Academics
Taiwan’s Cabinet has approved draft legislation to ease the regulations for universities to hire foreign academics, according to local media reports in August. Officials are concerned about brain drain and want to make it possible to attract more foreign talent.
The current regulations stipulate that applicants with a bachelor’s degree or higher must have experience in a specific field or a published work, among other requirements, in order to qualify for a teaching job at Taiwan’s universities and colleges.
The draft amendment to the Act of Governing the Appointment of Educators allows Taiwanese universities to hire teachers who have made “special academic contributions,” regardless of their degree level, the Ministry of Education said.
– China News Agency [41]
August 16, 2012
Chinese Students Continue to Eschew Taiwanese Universities
Taiwan’s universities were permitted to open their doors to Chinese students for the first time last year, with a cap on total enrollments at 2,000 degree students. Just 928 Chinese students enrolled. With a shared language, quality institutions, and cultural roots, many educators in Taiwan assumed the island would be an appealing destination for the many mainland Chinese students looking for overseas study options.
But Taiwan is still struggling to spur interest. For the second year in a row, it has filled less than half of the 2,000 university spots reserved for degree-seeking mainland students, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. It says just 987 mainland students enrolled this fall. Taiwan has been eager to attract mainland students to make up for declining university enrollments due to an oversupply of places and a falling birth rate. The education ministry has said that a large number of the island’s 165 universities face mergers or closure.
Because the Taiwanese government requires mainland students to meet high standards of academic excellence, those who qualify for Taiwanese places generally have plenty of other educational options. And while universities in places like Hong Kong and the U.S. offer scholarships to sweeten the deal, Taiwan’s universities are not currently allowed to do so. Last year, 4,582 mainland students enrolled in degree-granting programs at Hong Kong universities, five times the number going to Taiwan.
– The Wall Street Journal [42]
September 16, 2012