Ma urges tertiary 'all English curriculums'

Ma issued the call in his latest video presentation on “Weekly Records on Governing the Country” on the Web site of the Presidential Office.

While foreign universities have stepped up efforts to solicit Taiwanese students by offering attractive scholarships, Taiwan must take immediate action not only to keep its elite students at home, but also to lure foreign and Chinese youths to study here, Ma stressed.

The entry of foreign and Chinese students to Taiwan universities will spur local students to study harder and will help to expand their global perspective, the president said.

Currently, foreign students account for only 1.3 percent of all students at domestic universities and colleges, and Ma hoped the percentage can be doubled to 2.6 percent in the future.

The government will offer a spate of incentives to attract foreign students to study in Taiwan or tour the island, with the goal of the number of inbound foreign students set at 47,000, according to Ma.

At the moment, many foreign universities have been aggressively wooing Taiwanese students with attractive scholarship offers. The most recent example is Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which held presentations at several Taipei senior high schools a few days ago to recruit outstanding Taiwanese students. The university offered scholarship packages of HK$480,000 (about US$62,112) annually that would include HK$80,000 for tuition and HK$40,000 for living expenses.

Earlier this year, the University of Hong Kong also held a recruitment drive in Taipei, offering scholarships valued at HK$150,000 per year for up to four years.

During his video presentation, Ma urged the globalization of Taiwan's universities and colleges in a bid to help sharpen the country's competitive edge.

“If the government and education authorities fail to make significant changes in managing higher education, our prestigious teachers and talented students will flow en mass to universities in foreign countries, making it more difficult for us to upgrade the country's international competitiveness,” the president said.

Ma also mentioned that as a result of the declining birth rate, Taiwan's universities and colleges will fall short of 15,000 freshmen in 2012, leading to the closure of over 10 universities or colleges. This, however, will help solve the problem of low student numbers at some local universities, he said.

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