COVID-19: Taiwan Universities Face Financial Losses Due to Decrease in Number of Int’l Students

The decrease in the number of international students at Taiwan universities caused by the Corona pandemic has led to significant losses in tuition fees at universities across the country.

A total of 3,000 international students have cancelled their enrollments at Taiwan higher education institutions this academic year, among them 1,000 first-year students. Due to lower numbers of international students, losses in tuition fees reach an average of NT$110,000 (US$3,835) per year, Erudera reports.

According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MOE), this sum translates to an estimated amount that reaches NT$300 million.

This year, the admission process for international students at the country’s universities has been slower due to flight cuts as well as quarantine measures imposed to refrain Coronavirus spread. 

International students have among others required support from the government expressing dissatisfaction over the costs for quarantine at hotels, claiming that in some cases they had to pay NT$52,500 for the 15-day quarantine.

With the permission of education institutions, international students have been allowed to enter the country as of June 2020, and many of them still continue to come to the country. On Monday, October 12, 2020, there were 17,000 international students in total who arrived in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the majority of them, a total of 22,000 to 23,000 students are set to come to the country by the end of this year, CNA reported.

International students who have decided to not pursue studies at Taiwan universities are national of the following countries:

1. India
2. Indonesia
3. The Philippines

The abovementioned countries have been facing many challenges as a consequence of COVID-19 for quite some time now.

Moreover, the arrival of 450 international students planning to study Chinese in Taiwan upon the support of MOE scholarships will be considered in the upcoming months.

Before the crisis triggered by Coronavirus, Taiwan had marked an increase of 5 to 6 per cent in the number of international students, China Times reports.

Previously, in the academic year 2017/18, there were 4,621 Indonesian students continuing studies in the country, a figure that increased to 8,924 in 2019. Almost 56,800 international students were pursuing studies on degree programs in Taiwan during the 2018/19 academic year, 44,600 of them coming from Asian countries.