台湾大学首次招内地生遇冷

    Wang Yuanyuan

    Even though Taiwan universities began enrolling mainland students for their first time this year, the number of applicants so far is fewer than expected.

    Only about 500 mainland students had as yet applied for undergraduate study at Fu Jen University, which had the largest number of applicants, said Kao Yie-fang, dean of the Department of Business Administration.

    “We hoped there would be 800 to 1,000 students applying this year. Of the 500, only about 300 had paid registration fees,” she said.

    Meanwhile, the number of applicants for postgraduate schools was also fewer than expected. Taiwan universities planned to enroll 653 mainland students for postgraduate study this year but there had been only 405 applicants by the end of last week.

    Kao thought many mainland students might lack understanding of Taiwan universities. “It was the first time mainland students were to be enrolled in Taiwan and time was short, so we did not leave enough time for promotion. The National College Entrance Examination is finished, but we did not have time to provide an entrance reference score, so many students could be a little afraid of applying. Under the circumstances, mainland applicants will find it easy to enroll,” Kao said.

    It was expected that 48 Taiwan public universities and 86 private universities would enroll 2,141 mainland students. Of these, 1,488 would be undergraduate students. Applications close on Friday.

    According to Taiwan policy, mainland students will not be allowed to work in Taiwan after they graduate.