Don't Taiwanese Want to Study Abroad Any More?

Taking advantage of the summer holiday, Chou Tsung-han returns to Taipei to visit the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, located on Chuanchow Street, to get information about studying in the US. Chou, currently a junior in the department of biological sciences at National Sun Yat-sen University, is hoping to go to the States to study medical engineering after he completes his compulsory military service. Although there are graduate institutes of medical engineering in Taiwan, Chou hopes in the future to be able to bridge the fields of medical engineering and electrical engineering. Since there are few faculty in Taiwan with the necessary background, he has decided to go abroad to study.

"Out of the 50 students in my class, virtually everyone hopes to go on to graduate school. But because of considerations of money, environment, and other factors, 85% of my classmates are tending toward staying in Taiwan for graduate school," he says.

Fewer and fewer university students are making the same choice as Chou to study in the US. Twenty years ago Taiwan was the single largest source country of overseas students on American campuses. Ten years ago Taiwan had fallen to third, and this year is fifth. In fact, since the early 1990s, there has been a moderate but steady decline in the number of Taiwanese students going to America.

According to statistics from the Institute of International Education (IIE), a US government-funded organization, in 1994 there were 37,581 Taiwanese students pursuing studies in the States. After that the number declined, leveling off at about 30,000 for a while, and then, in the year 2000, falling below 30,000. Last year, the figure was down to 28,500.

Julie Hu, educational information and exchange officer at the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, says that in addition to the decline in overall numbers, there has been an especially sharp drop in the number of students attending graduate school in the United States. She states: "In the past, the ratio of students going to the US for university as opposed to graduate school was about two-to-eight; the number of graduate students far exceeded the number of undergraduates. But now the numbers are much closer to 50-50." In the year 2000 for example 53% of Taiwanese students in the US were in graduate school, 37% were in university, and 10% were doing what Taiwanese call "travel-study" (in which students do not pursue degrees, study mainly language, and just want the cultural experience of living abroad).

Academic freedom is one of the most valuable traditions at American universities. The photo shows the 300th anniversary celebration at Yale University, in which the school rejected outside political interference and allowed Taiwan students to carry the ROC flag. (photo by Yeh Chen-chen; courtesy of Yale Taiwan Students Association)

Keeping the kids at home

Hu, who has been advising students for many years, says that in the past most Taiwan students went directly to US institutions of higher education to pursue degrees. Many now just want to study English. But she discourages students from doing this, because it requires additional expenditures of time and money before formally entering a degree program.

Analyzing the reasons why fewer students are going to America, Julie Hu says that for one thing other English-speaking countries have been aggressively promoting their own education markets. In addition, the number of universities in Taiwan has virtually doubled over the last decade. Many students now feel that they have more opportunities by staying close to home.

However, logically speaking, the large increase in the number of universities in Taiwan has also led to a corresponding increase in the number of university graduates. If students were still going abroad at the same rate as in the past, the number of overseas students should actually be increasing. But this is not what is actually happening. Why not?

Wu Jing-jyi, executive director of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, says that at the newly founded universities and graduate schools, teachers want to keep their most outstanding students here. "Given pedagogy in Taiwan, university students are little more to their teachers than ID numbers. It is only in graduate school that real teacher-student relationships are built up. This is especially true in the sciences and engineering, where students and profs do research side-by-side, build a family atmosphere in the lab, and form research teams," he avers.

Taiwan parents have always supported their children to continue their studies. Now many feel that since it is possible to stay in the country to study, there is no need to go through the hassle of studying abroad. This is especially so given the money factor. In the past, when Taiwan was backward, American universities provided considerable scholarship assistance to students from Taiwan. But in recent years most scholarship money has gone to students from mainland China. Taiwan students now generally pay their own way, which paralyzes average families.

In addition, some argue that these days the political atmosphere in Taiwan strongly encourages localization, and the values of building up Taiwan and embracing Taiwan are preeminent. Under the circumstances, studying abroad is naturally not particularly emphasized.

The European option

While the number of students studying in the US has declined, what is the situation in other countries? In fact, the number of Taiwan students in other English-speaking countries has been increasing. In particular, the United Kingdom is clearly the new favorite among Taiwan students. According to British Council statistics on the number of UK visas issued to Taiwan students, in 1989 only about 1500 Taiwan students were studying in the UK. In 1995, that number surpassed 5000, and greatly increased again by the year 2000 to 8567. Why?

In the new economy, information is critical, but efficiency and return on investment are even more critical. Compared to the US, where on average it takes two years to get an MA, under the British system only one year is required. This point alone is sufficient to attract many students from Taiwan.

Wu Hsin-chun, who was in the working world for 10 years, felt that she had been away from school for too long. But she didn't want to enter too demanding a program. Seeing that it would only take a year to get an MA degree in Britain, her company allowed her to take an unpaid leave of absence. That is why she elected to go to the UK.

Fanny Pao, Education Counsellors Coordinator at the British Council, says that as far as higher education goes, not only does the British system save time and money, Taiwan's Ministry of Education fully recognizes British degrees. Moreover, since 1999, the government has especially welcomed overseas students and has liberalized some previous restrictions in order to attract students. For example, in the past overseas students were forbidden to take part-time jobs. But currently, if you have held a student visa for at least six months, then you can work up to 20 hours per week without having to get permission from any agency.

"Taiwan students customarily select schools based on their ranking and fame. In fact, many British universities such as Warwick and Strathclyde are ranked among the finest in the world in terms of academic research." Fanny Pao especially encourages Taiwan students who want to study biotechnology to go to the UK, where the first cloning of a sheep took place.

However, the data on student visas provided by the British Council does not tell the whole story. A BC survey taken last year year showed that of the 7583 students who received visas, 75% were going to the UK only for language studies. Only 25% of visa recipients were headed to degree programs (2.4% to university, 20% for MAs, and 1.5% for PhDs). The four main areas of study were business, information technology, art and design, and education.

Canada boasts excellent public safety, a beautiful living environment, and a large overseas Chinese community; there are an especially large number of younger Taiwanese studying in schools there.

Travel is not study

It appears that most of the students from Taiwan going to the UK and are going for so-called "travel-study." This situation repeats itself in the cases of Canada and Australia, as well.

Taking advantage of the period before the beginning of fall studies, the Canadian Education Centre, located on Fuhsing North Road in Taipei, held the final overseas studies seminar of the summer on August 9 to provide more information about life in Canada to students about to go there. There were a large number of teenaged faces at the meeting.

Charlie Cheng, deputy director of the CEC, points out that the number of students going to Canada rose sharply at the time of the Chinese missile tests in 1996 (surpassing 3000) and at that time their office was flooded with telephone inquiries. In addition, since the September 11 attacks last year, the US has become increasingly strict about giving visas, which has encouraged more students to turn their attention to Canada. Besides these factors, Canada has a safe and high-quality living environment, and has therefore become a popular destination for "travel study." She estimates that most of the students who go to Canada do so to study English rather than get degrees. There's also a trend of a growing number of junior high and high school students going to Canada to study.

The situation is largely the same for Australia. Jo Lian, deputy director of the office of education in the Australian Commerce and Industry Office in Taiwan, states that it is only in the last ten years that the Australian government has been making an effort to market Australian education to Taiwanese. Most of the students who have gone there the past several years have done so for travel-study. It was only about four years ago that more students began to attend university and graduate school, mainly getting information through word-of-mouth from friends and family members. The most popular fields of study have been business, teaching of English as a second language, tourism and hotel management, and nursing.

However, Canada and Australia, though English-speaking countries, have not been as successful as Britain in attracting students. In the past five years, the number of Taiwanese students going to those two countries has remained steady at only about 2000 or so each.

As for continental Europe, while there is great interest in the European Community, and many people embrace fond dreams and great curiosity about Europe, it has been difficult for those countries to attract large numbers of Taiwanese students. There are a number of reasons for this: there are language obstacles (few Taiwanese study European languages), the academic systems are complex and differ significantly from that in Taiwan, and it generally takes longer to complete graduate programs than it does in the UK or US. Thus, there have never been more than 300 to 500 students each studying in France and Germany.

It usually only takes a year to get an MA in the UK, which is economically efficient, making the UK increasingly popular among Taiwan students. The photo shows Oxford University. (photo by Vincent Chang)

Maintaining competitiveness

While there are differences in the popularity of various countries, it is clear that students from Taiwan no longer invariably go to the United States to study. However, the travel-study that most pursue in other countries cannot be equated with true overseas study in which students learn substantive material. Can the students who study in other countries fill the gap left by the declining number of students who go to the US? What impact will the decline in US overseas studies have on academic research and high-tech industry in Taiwan?

One man in a position to know is Frank Shu, whose father was president of Tsing Hua University and who himself returned from the States last year to take the same post. Shu, who is also a member of American National Academy of Sciences and of Taiwan's Academia Sinica, notes that in his father's era, there was a serious brain drain out of Taiwan, so at that time the government did its best to create an environment suitable for the development of high-tech industry in order to draw overseas students back. But today the situation is different. Because there are so many opportunities in Taiwan, outstanding people simply remain in the country, and do not go overseas to pursue ever-higher degrees. "However, in these days of evaporating national boundaries, we especially need people with an international level of knowledge competitiveness," he points out. Europe still does not have the comprehensive level of scientific achievement as there is in the US.

Shu describes the United States as "a multi-colored rainbow." There is talent in every field, and opportunities for success and development in every endeavor. Countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand cannot for the time being compare with the States. "Taiwan is a small country, and cannot develop every kind of technology by itself. Some people must go abroad to learn the latest developments and then bring them back." Generally speaking, the US is the best place to do this, he thinks.

Destination countries for Taiwan students other than USA (1992-2001)

Cultural diversity spurs creativity

"In the knowledge-based economy, the emphasis is on creativity and teamwork. Multicultural diversity is a great inspiration to creativity, and going abroad to study is the best opportunity for interaction with other cultures," says Wu Ching-chi. Under globalization, it is especially important to have English skills, and North American English is currently the dominant form. Indeed, even New Zealand has invited US residents to teach American English in that country, and it is no surprise that countries like Korea get their teachers from the United States as well.

Wu Ching-yi says: The main reason that everyone is worried about having fewer students going overseas is that Taiwan could lose competitiveness. For one thing, science and technology are advancing at incredible speeds. For another, English is very important; for example, negotiations for Taiwan's entry into the World Trade Organization had to be done in English. "If Taiwan's future elites want to understand how elites in other countries think, the best way to do this is to study at American universities."

Li Chen-ching, director-general of the Bureau of International and Cultural Relations in the ROC Ministry of Education, notes that warning bells are already going off. He says that while Taiwan ranks fifth in the world in the number of students signing up for the TOEFL exam, average scores from Taiwan are below the global average. Among the 23 Asian countries, Taiwan ranks fourth from the bottom in the TOEFL examinations given by computer, and only 14th in the handwritten exams, far behind fourth-ranked China. "If people don't feel like going abroad to study, naturally they won't spend much time working on their English."

Frank Shu agrees that this generation of students in Taiwan has inferior English to the last generation. He recalls that 12 years ago when he returned to Taiwan and delivered a lecture on the latest developments in astronomy in English, the students in the audience could all understand. But last semester when he lectured at Tsing Hua, he could tell by the looks on their faces that many students didn't understand what he was saying. In his next lecture he had no choice but to switch to Chinese.

One of the best things about overseas study is the chance to experience another culture. Berkeley, one of the favorite schools for Taiwanese students, is famed for its anti-Vietnam War activism and continuing liberal inclinations.

Ups and downs

Fears about the decline in the number of Taiwanese students going to the US are brought into even sharper relief by comparison to some other Asian countries. In 1999 for example, the number of students on US campuses from Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand all increased, with Korea even showing 10% growth. But Taiwan suffered a 2.3% decline.

Comparing the number of students from around the world who went to the US to study between 1995 and 2001, the greatest increases were in the cases of mainland China and India. For both countries the number rose from 30,000 or so to over 50,000. The enthusiasm among mainland students for studying in the US mirrors the trend once seen in Taiwan, and mainland China has now been the leading source of foreign students in the US for three years in a row.

The first wave of study in the US by students from the PRC came in the early 1980s, when the mainland first allowed such study after the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the US and the PRC. The second wave began after the June 4 Tiananmen Incident. We are currently in the third wave.

One side seems to be ascending, the other declining. This is reflected in the fact that it is increasingly difficult for students from Taiwan to get scholarships. Chen Tien-chih, a professor of economics at National Taiwan University, says: "For example, neither the University of Chicago nor Yale University has accepted any students from NTU's department of economics in many years." He says that students from Taiwan are performing worse than their mainland counterparts in the TOEFL and GRE, and students from the PRC usually are less economically well-off, so American schools are increasingly giving scholarship money to Chinese students. Yet the NT$1 million per year in tuition that it can cost for many US schools is still quite a heavy burden for the average Taiwanese student.

In recent years Australia has been endeavoring to attract more students from Taiwan, and offers many scholarships. The photo shows a student dorm at Melbourne University. (photo by Vincent Chang)

Hot and cold

There is a sharp contrast between the "heating up" of "overseas study fever" in mainland China and its "cooling off" in Taiwan. What will be the impact of this contrast on the academics, technology, economics, and culture of the two sides?

Wu Jin, a professor at Cheng Kung University and a member of the Academia Sinica, tells this cautionary tale. When he returned to his alma mater, the University of Iowa, two years ago to receive an award, the school president said to him: "Over the last two years the University of Iowa has hired 24 professors of Chinese ancestry, and every single one of them came from mainland China."

"American university professors often participate in government policy-making and shape opinion. If there is a decline in the US in the number of academics from Taiwan or who understand Taiwan affairs, Taiwan's voice will be that much weaker," worries Wu.

Chen Wei-chao, president of National Taiwan University, wrote in an article that while there has been no dramatic decline in the number of Taiwan students studying in the US, it is already clear that there is no new generation taking the place of the old in American academic circles. Taiwan students have materially comfortable lives, he argued, and the bottleneck for pursuing advanced studies is not nearly as small as it used to be. Taiwanse students of today simply cannot compare to those from the PRC in terms of determination and willingness to work hard. In the PRC, only the best of the best are able to study abroad. Opportunities are hard to come by, so they are very serious and hard-working. As a result a growing number of assistant and associate professors in American universities come from the PRC.

The fact that fewer and fewer students from Taiwan are getting doctorates in the social sciences and humanities and are remaining at American universities to teach could have a far-reaching impact on China studies in the United States. Recently, the University of Virginia established a new "C.K. Yen Chair," named for a vice president and president of the ROC who held office in the era when Taiwan rejected all contacts with the PRC. Ironically, in a demonstration of the growing stature of PRC academics, the first professor to be hired for the chair was a scholar from the PRC.

There's a lot to prepare before going abroad. The most important thing is language, and few people succeed without attending cram schools to prep for the TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT.

Be aggressive

Given the decline in the number of students going to the States, Taiwan's Ministry of Education (MOE) has decided to make major adjustments to measures for providing government scholarships for overseas study. As Li Chen-ching explains, the MOE has decided this year to begin a special program for developing short-term researchers in key technology areas. Thirty-five spots will be funded for doctoral candidates recommended by their universities to go abroad to do research in 12 key areas-including nanotechnology, biotechnology, computer science, and microelectronics-for one year. Students need only have their application accepted, and they will be exempted from the normal exams for government scholarships.

Wu Mao-kun, director of the Institute of Physics at the Academia Sinica, speaking at the July conference of Academia Sinica academicians mentioned at the beginning of this article, proposed that each year each institute in the Academia Sinica set aside NT$1 million to fund one PhD candidate to go abroad for advanced study; a great deal of skilled personnel could be trained in this manner in the long run.

But, looking at the bigger picture, Wu Jin believes: "It's already too late to give government scholarships to go abroad in those areas where manpower is in short supply." Wu Jin, who previously served on the executive committee in the government scholarship system, says that the manpower Taiwan urgently needs today may not be in demand later. In other words, it is impossible to know exactly what kind of manpower will be in demand even a few years down the road. He believes that Taiwan can search for the manpower it needs among Chinese communities and other countries; if terms and conditions are good, naturally these people can be attracted here.

Tang Chuan-yi, professor and chairman of the Department of Computer Science at Tsing Hua University, says that many schools currently have measures in place to encourage students to go abroad. For example, Taiwan Semiconductor's educational foundation provides funding to send 20 students from Tang's department abroad each year for apprenticeships in well-known laboratories.

Meanwhile, it wouldn't hurt for students who plan to go abroad to pay closer attention to scholarship information made available by the cultural offices that various countries have in Taiwan.

For example, Australia offers "high-tech scholarships" to students from Taiwan and nine other Asian countries or regions. These are targeted mainly at students going to Australia to study for MA or PhD degrees, or to pursue postdoctoral research. Priority is given to biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, software development, environmental technology, microelectronics, and mechanical engineering. Every year two or three students from Taiwan are awarded such scholarships, which provide up to NT$1 million per year for three years, as well as return airfare. Various other scholarships are also offered through the British Council and through the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange.

Taiwan students in the USA (1990-2001)

Window to the world

Looking at the most well-known figures in government, academia, and industry in Taiwan, a large proportion have returned from study abroad (especially in the US) in the last ten or 20 years. Back when Taiwan was a much more closed society, students who went abroad opened a window on the world for Taiwan. These returned students also brought glory days to Taiwan's economy.

Today, it's nothing special to have the chance to go overseas to study, and a more diversified value system has overturned the previous tradition of invariably studying in the US. The opening up of travel for the purpose of tourism has also allowed many people from different social strata to have the ability to experience foreign cultures.

For students in Taiwan, deciding whether to go abroad and what to study will never be questions that are out of fashion. Perhaps going abroad to study cannot guarantee a brilliant future. But it is worth the price of the ticket to see a different society, experience a different culture, improve your foreign language ability, broaden your perspective, and perhaps even open your heart.

Lin Hsien-ta

(interview by Teng Sue-feng/ tr. by Robert Taylor)

Twenty-eight-year-old Lin Hsien-ta graduated from the Graduate Institute of Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University. He has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in the field of educational technology, and in July of this year he went to the University of Michigan in the USA.

I graduated from NTU's mechanical engineering department in 1996, and went straight into graduate school. After my military service I joined Yuen Foong Yu and worked for two years in their New Business Incubator.

150 people graduated from NTU's ME department in the same year as me. At present around 20 of them are studying overseas. About half of the students who graduated six or seven years earlier have studied overseas, so you can see that studying abroad is a lot less popular now. Most science and engineering graduates take the view that for a career in industry you don't need a PhD. If you just do a master's, the resources at NTU are more than adequate, so it's okay to do it in Taiwan.

My interests seem to have always been changing. At first I wanted to study business administration, but then I thought that before doing an MBA it would be best to have some work experience. That work happened to bring me into contact with speech recognition software and systems, and the company also had an online learning system that allowed the employees of all its subsidiaries to study over the Internet. This got me interested in educational technology. Looking back, in my second year in primary school I joined the Scouts, and a few years ago I got involved in adventure education activities. I think it's very special. Groups of people must design outdoor equipment from wooden posts and ropes. They have to overcome difficulties and solve problems together, which helps them develop communication and leadership skills. Adventure education goes back 30 years in the US, and is also a part of the educational technology field.

I wrote my master's dissertation on methods of engineering design. Because it touched on psychology and creative thinking, I sat in on many courses in other departments, such as cognitive psychology, neural networks in the computing department, and idea engineering in the electrical engineering department. During my master's course I looked at how mechanical systems can be integrated with computer technology, and for my PhD I'm planning to research how education can be integrated with science and technology. So I guess that little by little I have been changing tracks.

I hope I can finish my PhD within four years. In the future I hope I to go into academia, to research or teach. In fact I should also have opportunities to work in industry, because recently many companies have been growing through mergers, and it is important for them to get employees from different corporate cultures to work together as a team. This is one of the functions of adventure education, so I'm not worried about my future career opportunities. I know there is already an adventure education training center at Xiamen in mainland China, and in Taiwan an adventure training base was also set up this June at Acer's Aspire Park.

Studying in the States doesn't come cheap, but fortunately I was able to get a Fulbright scholarship. That will pay my tuition and living expenses for two years. The purpose of the scholarship is to promote Chinese-American cultural exchange. As far as I understand I did reasonably well in the interview, the field I'm studying in is very new, and the selection committee were very pleased to see an engineering student wanting to shift into education, so they were willing to give me the scholarship.