The Taiwan Scholarship is a scholarship for international students who possess prior excellent academic performance and good moral character. The program began in 2004 as the jointly established Scholarship Program of Taiwan funded by the Government of the Republic of China's Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Science and Technology of the Executive Yuan. Currently, there are four types of scholarship programs: MOE Scholarships, MOFA Scholarships, MOEA scholarships and NSC Scholarships. [1]
Taiwan Scholarships fund two to four years of study at any university in Taiwan and are applicable to any field of study. Different scholarships may cover different types of expenses including tuition, room and board, textbooks, round-trip tickets and medical insurance. However, all of these scholarships provide students with a monthly stipend. [2] Approximately 400 scholars are selected each year. [3] The majority of Scholars choose to attend either National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Cheng Kung University, or one of the other major Taipei institutions, but scholars have attended a wide range of universities throughout Taiwan.
The foreign relations of the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, has full diplomatic relations with 13 of the 193 United Nations member states and with the Holy See. In addition to these relations, the ROC also maintains unofficial relations with 58 UN member states, one self-declared state (Somaliland), three territories, and the European Union via its representative offices and consulates under the One China principle. Taiwan has the 31st largest diplomatic network in the world with 110 offices.
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal to improve intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Via the program, competitively-selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. The program provides approximately 8,000 grants annually – roughly 1,600 to U.S. students, 1,200 to U.S. scholars, 4,000 to foreign students, 900 to foreign visiting scholars, and several hundred to teachers and professionals.
Academia Sinica, headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Founded in Nanking, supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from mathematical and physical sciences, to life sciences, and to humanities and social sciences. As an educational institute, it provides PhD training and scholarship through its English-language Taiwan International Graduate Program in biology, agriculture, chemistry, physics, informatics, and earth and environmental sciences. Academia Sinica is ranked 144th in Nature Publishing Index - 2014 Global Top 200 and 18th in Reuters World's Most Innovative Research Institutions of 2019. The current president since 2016 is James C. Liao, an expert in metabolic engineering, systems biology and synthetic biology.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), also known as Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), Taipei Representative Office (TRO) or Taipei Mission, is an alternative diplomatic institution serving as a de facto embassy or a consulate of the Republic of China to exercise the foreign affairs and consular services in specific countries which have established formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. As the PRC denies the legitimacy of the ROC as a sovereign state and claims the ROC-controlled territories as an integral part of its China. An exclusive mandate namely One-China policy, mandates any country that wishes to establish a diplomatic relationship with the PRC must first sever any formal relationship with the ROC. According to The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, "non-recognition of the Taiwanese government is a prerequisite for conducting formal diplomatic relations with the PRC—in effect forcing other governments to choose between Beijing and Taipei." As a result, these countries only allow the ROC to establish representative offices instead of a fully-fledged embassy or consulate for the purpose of conducting practical bilateral relations without granting full diplomatic recognition.
National Chiao Tung University was a public research university located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Established in 1896 as Nanyang Public School by an imperial edict of the Guangxu Emperor, it was one of Taiwan's leading universities. After the Chinese Civil War, NCTU was re-established by former Chiao Tung University faculty and alumni in 1958.
The International Chinese Language Program is an institution for intensive training in formal Mandarin, Taiwanese, Classical Chinese, and other varieties of Chinese. It is located in Gongguan, Taipei, on the main campus of National Taiwan University (NTU).
Tamkang University is a private university in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1950 as a junior college of English literature. Today it is a comprehensive university with 11 colleges that serves nearly 25,000 students on four campuses.
Islam is a minor religion in Taiwan and it represents about 0.3% of the population. There are around 60,000 Muslims in Taiwan, in which about 90% belong to the Hui ethnic group. There are also more than 250,000 foreign Muslims working in Taiwan from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as other nationalities from more than 30 countries. As of 2018, there are eleven mosques in Taiwan, with the most notable being the Taipei Grand Mosque, the oldest and largest one.
The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology abbreviated as NTUST or TaiwanTech (臺科大), is a public technological university located in Taipei, Taiwan. TaiwanTech was established in 1974 as the National Taiwan Institute of Technology (國立臺灣工業技術學院), as the first and the leading higher education institution of its kind within Taiwan's technical and vocational education system. TaiwanTech is one of Asia's 10th rank as the best institute in science and technology.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a ministry of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Governed as the cabinet level policy-making body under the Executive Yuan since 1928, the fundamental purpose of the ministry is to promote, expand, and conduct bilateral foreign affairs with other nations. Though the ministry was founded on 1 January 1912 when the Republic was founded, the ministry dates its origins on 11 March 1861 as the Office in Charge of Affairs Concerning All Nations in the Qing dynasty. The current Foreign Minister is Joseph Wu. The MOFA headquartered in Zhongzheng District in Taipei.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong (TECO) is the representative office of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Hong Kong. Its counterpart body in Taiwan is the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan.
Vanessa Shih is a Taiwanese diplomat who was appointed the representative of Republic of China to Austria in January 2016. She previously led the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore from 2009 to 2012, when she was named vice minister of foreign affairs. As vice minister Shih advocated for the United Nations to allow the Republic of China to have participation of some forms within the UN.
A de facto embassy is an office or organisation that serves de facto as an embassy in the absence of normal or official diplomatic relations among countries, usually to represent nations which lack full diplomatic recognition, regions or dependencies of countries, or territories over which sovereignty is disputed. In some cases, diplomatic immunity and extraterritoriality may be granted.
The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange is a private nonprofit organization located in Taipei, Taiwan, that provides support for research grants on Chinese studies in the humanities and social sciences at overseas institutions. It was founded in 1989 and named after Chiang Ching-kuo, the late President of the Republic of China from 1972 to 1988. The foundation also has a regional office in McLean, Virginia in the United States.
The MOFA Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (HES), is a competitively awarded international scholarship for studying the Mandarin language in Taiwan. The award is not limited to countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Taiwan studies, or Taiwanese studies, is a multi-disciplinary academic division of area studies focused on studying Taiwan and the people on/in/of Taiwan both on its own and in comparison with other world areas. Academia Sinica, Taiwan's national level research institute, officially inaugurated its Institute of Taiwan History in 2004 following a long exploratory period beginning in 1986. Taiwan studies departments and centers have been established in numerous universities around the world and key Taiwan studies organizations have been established in North America (NATSA), Europe, and Japan. The first World Congress of Taiwan Studies (WCTS) was hosted by Taiwan's Academia Sinica on April 26–28, 2012, in Taipei, Taiwan. More recently, China has begun to establish its own controversial version of Taiwan studies in the United States via its Confucius Institutes.
Malaysia–Taiwan relations refers to bilateral foreign relations between Malaysia and Republic of China (Taiwan). The economic and the cultural relations are still maintained with Malaysia has a trade centre office in Taipei, and Taiwan has an economic and cultural centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Taiwan Academies are non-profit public institutes with a stated aim of promoting Mandarin language, Traditional Chinese characters, and research on Taiwan-related topics. The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China (ROC) established the Taiwan Academy in 2011.
The scholarships in Taiwan include scholarships for pursuing degrees, academic exchange, conducting research, learning Mandarin and experiencing culture in Taiwan. They are mostly funded by the Taiwanese government, universities and Academia Sinica, but also by non-profit foundations.