Strong and weak points
This reporter visited five universities in northern and southern Taiwan, and interviewed about 50 foreign students. Although some students have complaints, generally speaking most are positive about higher education in Taiwan. They are happy with the well-equipped campuses and well-stocked libraries. For instance, foreign students at I-Shou praise the photographic equipment and studios. And students at NCCU, Tamkang and Sun Yat-sen laud the holdings of their libraries and the excellent and varied academic lectures-all of which greatly benefit graduate students.
What's more, the schools show great concern for the foreign students. They've developed "buddy systems," matching foreign students with locals. They've met them at the airport, helped them find places to live, provided advisers, and generally demonstrated a welcoming vibe-all efforts at getting these students who are so far from their homes to feel comfortable.
"A low student-faculty ratio" and "friendly and open-minded professors" are other strong points that many students mention.
"Accounting is a pretty hard subject, and in Taiwan I'm not afraid of asking my instructors questions. And the instructors are very patient when they explain things to me," says Helene Konkobo, who is enrolled in a program at Tamkang that is taught in English.
Of course, another big benefit of coming to study in Taiwan is that it can greatly increase one's Chinese abilities and one's understanding of Chinese culture.
"There were a lot of Chinese businessmen in my hometown, but I felt that they were an altogether different race of people, and I never felt that I wanted to chat with them," says Tenga Taua from the island nation of Kiribati. Now she feels none of that sense of separation. Walking the streets here, she interacts with the locals left and right.
Unique Taiwan/Asian experience
Generally speaking, most foreign students have a positive impression of education in Taiwan when it comes to the facilities, the educational resources, the language, the friendliness of teachers and so forth. But when it comes to the core focus of academia-stimulating innovation and advancing academic knowledge-the praise is more muted. In the face of global competition in education, one can't help but worry: What unique advantages does Taiwan have?
"Our strong suit ought to be in the realm of the humanities and social sciences. We should establish a unique Taiwan experience-or perhaps we can more broadly call it 'the modern Chinese experience,'" argues Christopher Chang, director of the Chinese Language Center at NCCU, who has been among those guiding NCCU's internationalization for many years. When setting their policy directions, both the government and universities ought to bear in mind that internationalization doesn't equal the spread of English, and an international country isn't one with an English-language curriculum. Rather, internationalization should mean developing curriculum about every area in the world, including curriculums that demonstrate Chinese cultural values and Taiwan's experience at modernization.
"For instance, Taiwan's graduate institutes of Taiwan literature and departments of Chinese, business and political science," Chang says, "rather than establishing standard economics and behavioral science classes that one can study anywhere, ought to think about developing curriculum that has special cultural or regional emphasis, so that interested foreigners will feel that they 'absolutely have to go to Taiwan.'"
"At the end of the day, the Chinese language is an important medium for getting foreigners to understand Taiwan and Chinese culture," says Frank Ying, dean of international affairs at National Sun Yat-Sen University. Both Chang and Ying believe that if government policy doesn't set Chinese-language requirements for its foreign students, then it will be very hard for campuses to become truly international. Ying cites the example of Yu Kwang-chung, a "campus treasure of National Sun Yat-Sen University": He has enormous literary and scholarly accomplishments, but if humanities students can't understand Chinese, how can they enter the realm of Yu's poetry? How will they gain a feel for the master's literary models?
New selling point: Taiwan studies
Taiwan's "cultural strength" is clear to those who come to Taiwan to earn master's and doctorates in programs with Chinese-language instruction.
Nurni W. Wuryandari, a doctoral candidate in Chinese at Tamkang, taught Chinese at the University of Indonesia (the nation's top campus) for 20 years. With the encouragement of the Indonesian government, she applied for a three-year Taiwan Scholarship to study here. Because the Chinese programs at National Taiwan University and NCCU emphasize difficult classical Chinese, she decided to take a more practical direction and enroll at Tamkang.
She's been in Taiwan for more than two years now and feels she particularly benefitted from her "literary sociology" and "comprehensive research into Chinese history and literature" classes. She has a lot of respect for the professors at Tamkang. She says her own Chinese has plenty of room for improvement, but that she is sparing no effort as the first Indonesian to pursue a doctorate in Chinese in Taiwan. Not only has her Chinese writing ability made great strides, but she believes that she will be able to expand the horizons of the Chinese studies community in Indonesia when she returns.
Frank Ying says that history and literature aren't the only areas where a Chinese-language curriculum can benefit foreign students. In social sciences and business administration, Taiwan offers unique Chinese points of view and experiences. He has taken students from third-world countries on tours of Taiwan's major science parks, and seen their eyes widen. Likewise, he's taken students from Belgium and Austria on tours of China Shipping, visits that have also broadened their horizons. If they can be better integrated into a curriculum, the many stages of Taiwan's economic development experience are all potential academic "strong suits."
Relying on higher education to push internationalization both offers a way forward for the education sector and helps the nation make friends and expand its influence. The number of foreign students is on the rise, and they're making their mark in every corner of Taiwan. Nevertheless, in comparison with Hong Kong and Singapore, Taiwan has taken its first steps late. If we want to enjoy a reputation as a great place to study, we need to work harder. But in the process of welcoming and befriending foreigners, can we also ruminate on our own identity and values? That's the still greater challenge!