Exporting education
In recent years, Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices in Southeast Asia have taken on a new mission: promoting study in Taiwan.
Aaron Chen, director of TECO Hanoi’s education division, says that Taiwan’s declining birthrate has threatened dozens of colleges and universities with enrollment crises. Recruiting abroad offers a solution. “Taiwan has outstanding institutions of higher learning, and these schools have great potential to expand their recruitment in Southeast Asia.”
Tina Ou, the Ho Chi Minh City office’s education attaché, says she organized four study-abroad information sessions last year, all of which were well attended.
Vong Phat Lien, a senior in the Oriental Studies Faculty at USSH Ho Chi Minh City, speaks Mandarin well. She remarks that her older sister is already studying in Taiwan and that she hopes to do the same.
TECO invited several guests who had themselves studied in Taiwan to speak at the session, and they were very persuasive.
Nguyen Huy Bich, head of an alumni association for Vietnamese who have studied in Taiwan, was the first Vietnamese person to earn a degree from Taiwan’s National Central University. Hired to teach at a university immediately after returning to Vietnam in 2010, he became dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Nong Lam University in 2012. He uses his own experience to reassure the students in attendance: “You needn’t worry about Taiwan’s culture. It is very similar to Vietnam’s.”
Cu Huy Hiep, who earned a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan for nine months in 2014, now works for a Japanese company in Vietnam.
“Taiwan is my favorite place outside of Vietnam itself!” A well traveled young person who has visited ten countries, Cu speaks Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and English, and loves Taiwan. “Taiwan isn’t the most beautiful place, but its sense of harmony is very comforting.” He adds, “And I love stinky tofu! I eat it three times a week!”
Cu not only enjoys Taiwanese food and has fond memories of its people, but also did very well academically while in Taiwan: he won first prize in both a National Taiwan University Language Center essay contest and the third annual Fabulous Taiwan photography contest.
Taiwanese businesspeople in Vietnam have also been active behind the scenes encouraging Vietnamese to study in Taiwan.
David Liang, director-general of Ho Chi Minh City’s TECO office, says that most of the Taiwanese businesses operating in Vietnam are in for the long haul and are therefore very interested in cultivating capable local managers. “Encouraging people to study in Taiwan is a great way for them to go about this.”
By cooperating on the information sessions, officials, schools, alumni and businesses have encouraged many young Vietnamese to study in Taiwan.
Exporting education
In addition to holding information sessions on campuses, Taiwanese officials have established “Taiwan Education Centers” in Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south.
These centers are part of the Ministry of Education’s eight-year plan to export Chinese-language education. Their functions include providing information on Taiwanese schools and scholarships, assisting in the recruitment of students, and promoting Chinese-language education by providing Mandarin classes and Mandarin proficiency tests.
To that end, the Hanoi center has partnered with USSH Hanoi and Taiwan’s Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, while the Ho Chi Minh City center is working with USSH Ho Chi Minh City and Taiwan’s National Chi Nan University.
Nguyen Van Hieu is director of international affairs and programs at USSH Hanoi, and director of the Hanoi Taiwan Education Center. He says that since 2001 USSH has established relationships with a number of Taiwanese universities, including National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Cheng Kung University, Fu Jen Catholic University, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. USSH has also participated in a steady series of academic conferences, and student and faculty exchanges. Nguyen adds that the Hanoi Taiwan Education Center, which USSH Hanoi cofounded with Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in August 2014, has arranged Mandarin proficiency testing for more than 1,000 people in the last year and a half.
In March 2015, the center organized an expo on Taiwanese higher education on the USSH Hanoi campus, and invited 32 public and private universities and colleges to exhibit. The event proved popular, attracting more than 1,100 local students.
Taiwanese businesses, TECO Ho Chi Minh City, and the Taiwan Education Center are working together to help Taiwan’s universities recruit students in Vietnam.