Established from the same roots as Beijing’s Tsinghua University, National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan still shares many of the same traditions as its Chinese counterpart. Hsiao-Wei Chiang, at the Office of Global Affairs tells The PIE about restrictions on enroling Chinese students, and plans to further internationalise the university.
The PIE: What kind of university is National Tsing Hua University?
HWC: Our university actually has the same origin as the Beijing Tsinghua. It started in 1911, and when the government moved to Taipei in 1949, it decided to reestablish Tsing Hua in Taiwan as well. So in 1956, we invited the founding president from Beijing to come to Taiwan and reestablish Tsing Hua.
At that time, the mission was to solve the energy problem in Taiwan, so the very first faculty was the nuclear education faculty. We established three nuclear reactors on campus. Today we’re down to one, and it’s been 60 years and it’s still in operation. Not for energy any more, but the nuclear faculty work with the medical science department. They’ve developed some kind of technology that can cure cancer patients with a new radioactive procedure that’s already been applied to the next door hospital and Taipei hospital, and seems to show very good results.
“Over the years we’ve added humanities, social science, life science, even a management school”
The PIE: Do you still have strong links with Tsinghua in Beijing?
HWC: Yes, we have the same logo, the same school songs, the same day of our anniversary, the same motto – even how we name our dormitories is the same, so we consider ourselves very close.
Since we were established in 1956 we became a science and engineering university, but over the years we’ve added humanities, social science, life science, even a management school – so becoming a more comprehensive university. According to the latest Shanghai rankings for Greater China – Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland – we ranked number two, next to Beijing Tsinghua.
The PIE: Do students exchange between the two universities?
HWC: Oh yes. We have dual degrees, exchange students; every summer we have exchanges for two months. Every semester we have about 40 students coming over and we send the equivalent to Beijing.
The PIE: How many students do you have?
HWC: Over 16,000, and 800 faculty. Last November, we were approved by the government to merge with National Hsinchu University of Education and so we are in the process of merging right now, which has added two colleges. So it used to be 12,000 students and 600 faculty – so there’s a lot of work going on.
The PIE: Why did you decide to merge? Is this part of the government’s drive to reduce the number of universities in Taiwan?
HWC: It’s true that Taiwan has 168 universities, which is way too much. [As the student population decreases because of the ageing population] many universities, especially private universities ranking in the second half will have problems, including attracting students.
“In the beginning, a lot of our faculties didn’t want to merge”
But that’s not a problem for Tsing Hua because we are a big name – our problem is always having more students apply than we can accept. We’ve been talking about it for over 10 years now. We thought they would be complementary: the National Hsinchu University of Education liked the name of Tsing Hua, and we wanted to have their capabilities and their new faculties. But it took 10 years.
That’s the problem with Taiwan, when you have to merge with a university – even if the Ministry of Education gives you approval in the beginning – still the two universities have to vote. And in the beginning, a lot of our faculties didn’t want to merge. There was a lot of hair pulling but we eventually did it.
The PIE: How many international students do you have?
HWC: About 1,400 degree seeking students – plus some exchange students, around 600 maybe. The breakdown for degree students is about 500 so-called ‘true’ foreign students mostly from Europe, South America, Australia, and then we have 500 from Mainland China. Plus about 400 ‘overseas Chinese’ students – students whose parents or grandparents are from Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China – and they are mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Southeast Asia.
The so-called overseas Chinese, they may not speak Mandarin but because their parents are from China they like to send their students to Taiwan, which the government doesn’t put restrictions on overseas Chinese.
The PIE: Is there a limit on the number of Chinese students you can have?
HWC: That’s a problem now, that the Ministry of Education has a limit. Every year we can only accept five undergraduate students from the mainland. So when I say we have 500 that means a lot of them are master’s students or PhDs or existing numbers.
“Most departments have a special class for degree students that are taught entirely in English”
For political reasons, they think that if we open up, we won’t have five, we’ll have 5,000. People think that it’s going to affect local people because mainland Chinese students they love to come to Taiwan, for some reason. It’s a shame, we’d love to see more because they are excellent students.
The PIE: Do you offer English-taught programmes?
HWC: Currently 15% of undergraduate programmes are taught in English – that includes probably 300 courses. But for master’s and PhDs, it’s about 40%. And most departments have a special class for degree students that are taught entirely in English.
The PIE: What impact will Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy have on higher education in Taiwan?
HWC: Since China is showing very unfriendly relations with this new government – so the new government was thinking maybe we should go southbound. Well, actually Tsing Hua University is already doing that. Not just for Southeast Asia – India has become one of the emphases and we have the largest number of Indian students in Taiwan, around 200.
The PIE: Why do you have so many Indian students?
HWC: We have 200 Indian students, mostly on master’s and PhD programs. The reason is that we’re on a contract from the government that we have set up six Taiwan education centres in India, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai. Mainly it’s for teaching Mandarin and to help recruit Indian students. Since we’ve been doing that for five, six years now, we’ve become the champion for Indian students.
The PIE: Why were the Taiwan education centres set up?
“At a private university, if the president is keen enough, you can concentrate on internationalisation”
HWC: That was six years ago and the government at the time was also thinking about southbound. It began with two centres, now we have six; I think the seventh and eighth are coming. So the government gave us some limited money to run the centres – we can teach Mandarin, we can promote Taiwanese culture, and also recruit Indian students.
The PIE: Do students come to Tsing Hua after studying at centres in India?
HWC: Some do, and some just study at the centre – actually, we help them train military personnel in Mandarin. They don’t come to Taiwan to study.
The PIE: How do you see internationalisation changing in the next few years at Tsing Hua?
HWC: Well, to tell you the truth, with public universities in Taiwan, our management is decentralised. So if the president says we want more internationalisation or more students, not all the departments will necessarily go along with it. Some departments are doing really well with international students, and they’re not going through us – the international office. Some just don’t need us! And some departments need more of an incentive.
So it’s a very funny situation. At a private university, if the president is keen enough, you can concentrate on internationalisation. I’m still teaching mechanical engineering so whenever I go back to my department I have to fulfil my full responsibility, and this is like a side job. So it’s hard to say exactly how things will change just yet.
