A boy is entranced by “Jurassic X
Dinosaur Snow World” exhibition at
the Taipei Performing Arts Center.(Courtesy of Pan I-Ju)
FACT FOCUS
- Taiwan has implemented a 12-year
basic education system since the
2014 school year.
- There are 145 universities, colleges
and junior colleges in Taiwan.
Education is an important component of
government policymaking and accounts for a large
portion of the budget. With an increasing emphasis
on attaining tertiary education, those with a
technical college or university degree account for
49.7 percent of Taiwan’s population aged 15 and
above, an 8 percentage point increase over the
past decade.
To offer students more opportunities, the Ministry of
Education introduced the 12-year basic education to build
on the nine-year compulsory education beginning in
2014. Every year in competitions such as the International
Science Olympiad, young students from Taiwan win
distinctions in biology, chemistry, earth sciences,
mathematics, informatics and physics. The talent in
Taiwan’s workforce has contributed tremendously to
enhancing economic prosperity and quality of life.
Recognizing the multicultural nature of the nation, the
government has included in its 12-year basic education
system mandatory courses on Taigi, Hakka, Taiwan
Indigenous languages and those of new immigrants
to spur the transmission, revival and development of
such languages. Furthermore, to enhance the global
competitiveness of Taiwan’s talent and industry, the
government adopted the Bilingual 2030 policy in 2021.
Scholarship Programs
Both government and university scholarships are available
for international students. The Taiwan Scholarship
program, for instance, offers grants to students who wish
to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in diverse
fields. Interested applicants can contact the country’s
embassies and representative offices or visit the MOE’s
website:
https://english.moe.gov.tw/lp-24-1.html.To encourage international students to learn Mandarin
in Taiwan, the MOE established the Huayu Enrichment
Scholarship. This program enables foreign students to
undertake Mandarin courses at 65 university-affiliated Mandarin learning centers around the nation, while also
boosting international awareness and understanding of
Taiwan culture and society.
A list of Mandarin training centers and information
on learning the language in Taiwan can be found
on the websites of the MOE, Study in Taiwan(
www.studyintaiwan.org) and the Taiwan Mandarin Education Resources Center (
https://lmit.edu.tw/lc/school_list/).
