Past Issues

Where Inquiring Minds Meet

• Byline:JIM HWANG
• Publication Date:12/01/2009

Mainland Chinese students in Taiwan have chops made. The seals are necessary to open a bank account and “sign” other official documents locally. (Courtesy of Chaoyang University of Technology)

After two decades of one-way traffic, cross-strait educational exchanges are increasing in both directions step by step.

Globalization and internationalization, strategies that have been adopted by most sectors of the economy, have also been having an impact on higher education. Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that more than 560,000 Taiwanese students went overseas to advance their education in the past two decades and Taiwan’s institutions of higher education have been establishing exchange programs, joint ventures and other partnerships with foreign colleges and universities over the same period. But while reaching out to the world, Taiwan’s educational cooperation with mainland China has been comparatively insignificant.

Politics was the obvious reason. During the nearly four decades Taiwan was under martial law, there were no exchanges between the two sides. Scholars could even get themselves in trouble just for having discussions with mainland Chinese scholars at academic meetings held elsewhere around the world.

Visiting Family

The situation changed as cross-strait tensions eased. The Republic of China (ROC) government lifted martial law in 1987 and began allowing its citizens to visit relatives in mainland China. Although visiting mainland China for academic purposes was not allowed officially, it seemed that scholars could always find some relatives to visit across the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing was enthusiastic about the opening and immediately set regulations specifically for Taiwan-related educational exchanges. These regulations not only welcomed visits by Taiwanese academics but also allowed Taiwanese students formal admission to mainland Chinese higher education institutions. Although stricter regulations on visiting mainland China were enforced by Beijing after the Tiananmen incident in 1989, everything was soon back to normal as things cooled down.

Liu Sun-chi, director of the Division of Chinese Economy and Society at National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, explains that since the late 1970s, Beijing has employed a “united front” tactic as its Taiwan policy. Although it has never renounced the use of military force, it stresses the use of “peaceful” means to bring Taiwan under its rule. “To be able to reach a peaceful unification, Beijing would need to strengthen Taiwanese people’s ‘Chinese identity,’” he says. “It welcomes Taiwanese to invest, travel, take part in meetings and student summer camps and all other activities that give them a chance to ‘influence’ the Taiwanese.”

Taipei, though more conservative than Beijing in this regard, was also drawing up a legal framework concerning its citizen’s visits to mainland China. The Guidelines for National Unification approved in 1991 state that unification should be gradual and sequential, while exchanges at a people-to-people level would be the short-term goal in cross-strait relations. Then the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area was enacted in 1992, and regulations allowing Taiwanese students to visit mainland China for short-term research or academic programs were also established.

Student Groups

In 1991, several Taiwanese universities started to organize student groups to visit mainland Chinese universities during summer and winter vacations. Tamkang University in Taipei County, according to Liu, was the first school that organized such a group for students of its Graduate Institute of China Studies. Other schools soon followed suit, and even the China Youth Anti-Communist National Salvation Corps (China Youth Corps after 2000), a private organization focusing on providing recreational services to Taiwanese and overseas Chinese, began to organize academic exchange groups for university and high-school students and teachers.

Cross-strait tensions were high after former ROC President Lee Teng-hui made a high-profile trip to the United States in 1995 and announced his theory of a “special state-to-state relationship” between Taipei and Beijing in 1999, but educational exchanges continued. “Schools and educational organizations on both sides had been doing it for several years and had already established communication channels and systems for exchanges,” Liu says. “Also, Beijing didn’t really want to shut the door completely as it needed incoming Taiwanese for the united front strategy to work.”

Students from Minzu University of China in Beijing and Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, Sichuan province stage a show at Taipei’s National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall for victims of Typhoon Morakot, which hit Taiwan in August. (Photo by Central News Agency)

Academic activities and cooperation continued between 2000 and 2008 during the two terms of former ROC President Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP has a more conservative mainland policy, but Beijing seems to have been consistent in encouraging cross-strait exchanges. In the more than a decade from Taiwan’s opening of mainland travel in 1987 to 2000, approximately 3,800 Taiwanese students studied in mainland China. Since 2000, according to mainland Chinese education authorities, between 1,000 to 2,000 Taiwanese students have entered higher education institutions there per year. Currently, there are about 11,000 Taiwanese students studying in mainland China, excluding those in short-term programs.

That number is likely to increase rapidly. Last July, the mainland Chinese deputy education minister announced that starting from this fall semester, Taiwanese students would no longer need to take a special examination to enter mainland Chinese universities, as they can apply using their grades from the university entrance examination they take in Taiwan. Several Taiwanese students have already given up a spot at a top Taiwanese university for a place at a top mainland Chinese school, often at the behest of their parents, who believe that such a degree can help them gain access to advanced study or develop a business career in the mainland market. Even “mid-performance” Taiwanese students, who fail to earn a place at the top universities at home, also have a chance to enter some fairly good schools in mainland China.

‘Hot’ Course

Currently, the “hottest” science course among mainland-bound students is traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Entry to schools teaching TCM in Taiwan is extremely competitive, and mainland China is a global center of study in the field. It is estimated that half of the Taiwanese students who are in or have been to mainland China for study major in TCM. Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Fuzhou City, Fujian province, for example, has enrolled 400 Taiwanese students since 1988.

Zhuang Ya-ling from Yunlin County in central Taiwan completed her undergraduate program there a year ago. Like those before her, Zhuang wants to practice medicine, but she still cannot decide whether she should return to Taiwan or stay in mainland China. Taiwan is home, but the ROC government does not recognize her mainland Chinese academic credentials and therefore she is not even qualified to take the examination for a license. Like other students of TCM who studied in mainland China, Zhuang is hoping the government in Taiwan will change the regulations and recognize her degree. For the time being, there might be better opportunities away from home. Earlier this year, for example, a Taiwanese student who earned a master’s degree in medical science from Peking University was officially employed by a public hospital in Fujian. Other students from Fujian University’s TCM program have also found jobs in mainland clinics. To go home or to stay: that is a decision Zhuang thinks is even more difficult than completing her studies.

Academic credentials may not be everything in the business world, but they certainly are for people who want to return to Taiwan to apply for professional licenses, take civil service or other national examinations or pursue advanced studies. Opinions on whether mainland Chinese credentials should be recognized are mixed. Those who believe Taiwan should recognize mainland Chinese academic credentials think that with the internationalization of education, there is no reason for Taiwan to recognize credentials earned everywhere but mainland China, whose credentials are recognized everywhere else. Also, the returnees, being ROC citizens, are entitled to a fair chance to use what they have learned to serve the public.

But those who suggest otherwise seem to also have a case when taking the job market into consideration. Take Taiwan’s medical services market. For Western medicine, Taiwan produces 1,300 new doctors every year, which is already a sufficient supply for the market.

Recognizing Credentials

The situation in traditional Chinese medicine is more critical, according to Lin Yong-nong, president of the Taiwan TCM Association. He notes that there are currently about 5,000 licensed practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine and that is already more than enough for domestic demand. “If the government recognizes mainland Chinese credentials, there will be tens of thousands more who can take the national examination and become doctors,” he says. “The supply will be way over demand and we’ll all be starving.”

While Taiwanese students are still having trouble getting their mainland Chinese academic credentials recognized, mainland Chinese students are having trouble getting any Taiwanese credentials. Although mainland Chinese authorities have been encouraging Taiwan’s higher education institutions to recruit students there, cross-strait educational “exchanges” for the most part have been one-way only. While Taiwanese students can easily study and visit mainland China, many more restrictions apply to inbound mainland Chinese students who, according to current regulations, can only stay in Taiwan for a year.

Students from seven Taiwanese universities participate in a summer camp in Shanghai in July. Taiwanese students started to visit mainland China in the early 1990s. (Photo by Central News Agency)

Allowing long-term stays for mainland Chinese students and recognition of mainland Chinese credentials both require the revision of related laws including the University Act, the Junior College Law and the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Former administrations, for various reasons, did not make moves toward such revisions. Government policy started to change after ROC President Ma Ying-jeou was elected last year, as relaxing restrictions on cross-strait educational exchanges and recognizing mainland Chinese academic credentials were among his campaign promises. The administration, turning words into action, lengthened the visa period for mainland Chinese students from six months to a year in November 2008. Relevant laws and regulations have also been reviewed and are now under legislative deliberation.

The academic sector, meanwhile, has been more aggressive. In the past several years, institutions from both sides have been finding ways to promote two-way exchanges.

Top Schools

In 2006, the first Cross-Strait University Presidents’ Forum was held in Fuzhou, Fujian province. Presidents and vice presidents from 57 universities, including 27 from Taiwan, attended the meeting. Last year, at the second forum, the number of representatives from Taiwan increased to 36, including presidents and vice presidents from some of Taiwan’s top universities such as National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Chiao Tung University and National Tsing Hua University. The forums passed official proposals for establishing a joint platform for cross-strait exchanges between university presidents, promoting interactions between institutions of higher education, promoting exchanges on a continuing basis and creating more channels of cooperation to contribute to mutual educational prosperity.

In April, 60 institutions of higher vocational education from both sides of the Taiwan Strait attended the 2009 Cross-Straits Higher Vocational Education Exhibition held in Xia­men, Fujian province. The exhibition was the first one of its kind in mainland China. It provided an interactive platform for institutions of vocational education from both sides to showcase their achievements, explore cooperation opportunities and exchange educational concepts. Chen Jen-kwei, president of Ling Tung University in Taichung City in Taiwan and also chairman of the Association of Private Universities and Colleges of Technology, points out that Taiwan’s vocational universities are especially attractive to mainland Chinese students, as there are only three-year junior colleges in their vocational education system at home. Many of those mainland Chinese graduates who want a university diploma that can be helpful in finding jobs or seeking higher education are potential students for Taiwan’s institutions.

Adding together the numbers of high-school graduates in mainland China who fail to gain a place at a university and those at vocational junior colleges who want to enter university results in a potential market of 30 million people. For Taiwan’s universities, each one of those people represents 70,000 reasons for admission, as it is estimated that a mainland Chinese student, despite scholarships and other favorable terms for tuition fees, can still bring a school around NT$70,000 (US$2,100) a year.

If the three laws currently under deliberation pass, Taiwan’s higher education and vocational institutions would be able to enroll between 1,500 and 2,000 mainland Chinese students a year, which could be very helpful since many Taiwanese institutions, especially private ones, have been facing serious financial difficulties.

Under Deliberation

While the laws are yet to be finalized, several Taiwanese institutions have already started to accept mainland Chinese students for short-term study and academic exchange programs. This fall semester, for example, the campus of Chaoyang University of Technology in Wufeng Township, Taichung County saw 69 new exchange students from several Fujian universities. According to Chaoyang president Chung-jen Chin, the university has accepted exchange students from its mainland Chinese sister schools before, but the numbers were minimal and the students could only stay for six months. This fall saw the first and largest group of students since the ROC government lengthened study visas for mainland Chinese students to one year.

I-Shou University in Kaohsiung County is another institution that has been conducting student exchange programs with mainland Chinese universities. Since 2007, it has accepted some 200 mainland Chinese students from 18 universities there. In his experience, I-Shou president Fu Sheng-li has found that despite the different lifestyles and values, mainland Chinese students have been having a positive influence on local students. “It’s not easy for them to come and they can only stay for a year, so they grab every learning opportunity and absorb as much as they can,” he says. “That attitude is a stimulus for local students to work hard and be more aggressive in their studies, as it would make them look bad if their performance were inferior to their mainland Chinese classmates.”

In the long run, Fu thinks that while the revision of relevant laws can provide the legal framework, representatives from both governments should work out an agreement on cross-strait educational exchanges—in the same way they are working on an economic cooperation agreement—to detail the norms and criteria for studying and living on the other side. Currently, there is no knowing how long the legislation and the agreement will take, yet there is no need to rush. As the Chinese saying goes: It takes 10 years to grow a tree, while a sound education program may require 100 years before it takes root.

Write to Jim Hwang at jim@mail.gio.gov.tw