72 Indonesian students have been awarded scholarships to study in Taiwan, after 952 students applied for endowments to study in the country.
38 students from Indonesia received Taiwan Scholarships, six won International Cooperation and Development Fund Scholarships and four earned Taiwan Scholarships from the Ministry of Science and Technology, which the Taiwan Ministry of Education awards to high school graduates to study four-year undergraduate, two-year masters, or four-year doctorate programs.
Huayu Enrichment Scholarships have been handed to 24 Indonesian students to study Mandarin for six months to one year.
The 72 students attended a briefing session with The Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Indonesia.
Head of TETO in Indonesia, John Chen, indicated that Indonesia is key for Taiwan’s New Southbound policy, and Taiwan will actively assist the country in the cultivation of higher education and technical talents.
He added that he hoped recipients can “continue to bridge the relationship between Taiwan and Indonesia and help even more people know Taiwan” in the future.
In 2017, the ministry’s Higher Education Department allocated NT$430m (US$14.1m) each year for the following three years to initiatives that would encourage universities to deepen their internationalisation efforts and links with Southeast Asia.
The HES scholarships are part of the Taiwan Fellowships & Scholarships Program, which seek to “promote research, educational links, and enduring friendships” between Taiwan and the global community, according to the government.
Earlier in 2018, 31 Australians were awarded Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan.
According to the MOE, 56 Mandarin Chinese language centres in Taiwan are affiliated with universities. The HES program offers scholarships to students seeking to learn Mandarin for a period of up to one year in one of these language centres.
Almost 20,000 students were studying Mandarin Chinese at universities, colleges or junior colleges in Taiwan in 2016, according to MOE statistics, up from 10,177 in 2007.
Taiwan enrolled 41,000 students from Southeast Asia in its tertiary institutions in 2017-18 – 700 more than the government’s target, according to the country’s acting minister of education Yao Leeh-ter.
In addition, the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund, which aims to train professional workforce with the country’s allies, expanded its vocational training projects in the Pacific and in Latin America this year.
28 participants from Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu are benefitting from two training courses related to baking and hospitality management run by 2018 Vocational Training Project in the Pacific.
The 2018 Vocational Training Project for the Youth in the Latin America is running three courses related to creative woodwork, mobile phone repair and app design and programming, and computer-aided mechanical manufacturing. 40 trainees from countries in the Latin America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Paraguay, are participating in the project.
These vocational training projects are expected to “boost trainees’ employment and entrepreneurship prospects”, according to TaiwanICDF.
