Taiwan’s Ministry of Education recently announced changes to its scholarships scheme. In the previous scheme, scholarship holders are asked to service Taiwanese society by coming back to the country for employment for the same length of time as their scholarship offers.
Under the new regulations, scholarship holders are no longer required to return to Taiwan upon graduation, and the number of places available will be doubled to over 200 per year.
While students in Taiwan increase their international participation through programmes such as exchange, working holiday and short-term study, the aim of these government scholarships is to further encourage talented students to study overseas with prestigious institutions.
According to the Ministry, the number of Taiwanese academics working overseas, especially in the key research-leading countries, has decreased significantly over years, which projects weakened influence of Taiwan in the international academic circle and has caused negative impact on the country’s long-term talent development. The scholarships are to supplement the government’s efforts in re-establishing its human resource with quality training and international experience that can contribute to national development in a few decades’ time.
Although there are no restrictions on the level of studies and study destinations in the current scholarship scheme, the government is looking at only awarding those who study PhDs at leading institutions in the future with an amount of NTD 1.2 million per year, reported the United Daily.