I tried searching for this but didn’t come up with anything–maybe this isn’t the right forum, although it didn’t fit in neatly anywhere else. I’m hoping to come to Taiwan next year on a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, but it means I’d be taking time off from finishing my M.A. in international affairs. The best thing, however, would be if I could find a university in Taiwan that has graduate courses, taught in English (my Chinese isn’t that good yet unfortunately), in disciplines like internatinoal affairs, political science, economics, international development, etc. Does anyone know where my best bet would be? I looked at NTU’s website and there’s one class that might fit the bill (in economics) but I thought I’d defer to the experts. Thoughts?
As far as I know, the economics at NTU are only sometimes in English… I had a harder time finding graduate courses in English, in contrast to undergraduate ones (or I was too stupid to find some). Can’t really help you with other universities, though. i heard from someone that he will study something like you at Zhengda in English… but I’m not sure and don’t have any detailed information.
I go to NCCU (in a Chinese program) and the students in the English taught graduate programs I’ve talked to are pretty disappointed. The program I’m in leaves much to be desired, as well, and by that I mean syllabi, reading lists and assignments! But I’m sure there is someone on this forum who will tell you how great the programs are here.
The Graduate School of International Affairs is part of Ming Chuan University’s International College, so its courses must all be taught in English. Its web site is at gsia.mcu.edu.tw/ but it appears to be down right now.
I go to NCCU (in a Chinese program) and the students in the English taught graduate programs I’ve talked to are pretty disappointed. The program I’m in leaves much to be desired, as well, and by that I mean syllabi, reading lists and assignments! But I’m sure there is someone on this forum who will tell you how great the programs are here. [/quote]
That’ll be me.
Chauncey, check if your university has any partnership with NCCU, so you can get “double” credits. The NCCU advantage is that it is really taught all in English, and it has done so for many years, so it is a mature program.
Wow, Icon, that’s awesome! I had no idea there were so many courses on offer (I had only found the PhD program’s courses). So are you taking any classes right now? How are they? I’ve emailed to ask (since I can’t find it on the website), but what’s tuition like per class?
Related to what archylgp wrote, I’m actually looking to take it pretty easy, my workload is nuts at my home school so I’d be happy to kick back and get some easy credit tbh–so they only way I’d be disappointed is if the classes were really demanding! Plus I’ll be focusing most of my efforts on studying Chinese.
On another note, all of the Taiwanese Universities’ English websites make my brain hurt!
I’ll step back and take a more balanced approach, now. I’ve heard some good things, as well. Supposedly the business-related stuff isn’t bad. Another good thing; I find that between NCCU and Tai Da I can find pretty much any book I need. So even though in-class work is pretty much a waste of time – at least for me so far – I can teach myself, which is what all academics end up doing anyways …
This will be the first time out of many that stuff you get from a Taiwanese university will make your brain hurt
[quote=“Chauncey Gardener”]Wow, Icon, that’s awesome! I had no idea there were so many courses on offer (I had only found the PhD program’s courses). So are you taking any classes right now? How are they? I’ve emailed to ask (since I can’t find it on the website), but what’s tuition like per class?
Related to what archylgp wrote, I’m actually looking to take it pretty easy, my workload is nuts at my home school so I’d be happy to kick back and get some easy credit tbh–so they only way I’d be disappointed is if the classes were really demanding! Plus I’ll be focusing most of my efforts on studying Chinese.
On another note, all of the Taiwanese Universities’ English websites make my brain hurt![/quote]
No, dear, I graduated a few years ago, but they still send me the course offerings, alumni can still take classes, if they want to. True, the websites are a bit “dense”, please feel free to add any constructive criticism that could help us improve. On the other hand, as Archylgp warned, the gap in ways of thinking can be a bit challenging in academia… As with all things in this part of the world, what you assume as logic does not automatically apply.
Oh do you work for NCCU, Icon? removes foot from mouth
I was referring mostly to aesthetic things like font/layout of some of the pages as well as dead links. For example, the contact email address for the International Doctoral Program in Asia Pacific studies is a faulty address and returns all my emails. Also the admissions page for international students found here oic.nccu.edu.tw/english/admission/index.php is a good source of information but all the links on the left (e.g. About Us) and some of the links within that page (e.g. FAQs) just redirect to the same page, they don’t go anywhere.
But I shouldn’t be complaining, I’m actually overjoyed that these classes are even on offer! Really looking forward to it, I’ve been wanting to learn more about the Asia-Pacific, but those courses aren’t offered at my school, so this will be a great opportunity to learn from the experts
I suggest you look at the Asia Pacific Studies program at NCCU. There is a Master’s and Ph.D. course taught in English. NCCU has an excellent faculty in international relations, diplomacy and politics. I have completed the Master’s program there (when it was called Taiwan Studies).
Thanks, Wix, that’s exactly the program I’m interested in. The classes look great, so it’s good to hear that you enjoyed the program. The only weakness, it seems, is that I must be a registered student at NCCU in order to take any M.A. courses, which means I’m stuck with their Chinese program–so I guess I’ve got to do some research into that now.
I just received an email back from them saying I would also need to submit a full application to the M.A. program–can anyone confirm this? I really don’t want to go through the whole rigamarole of getting reference letters etc. I kind of imagined that once I was accepted in the Chinese program and my Huayu scholarship confirmed, then I could select classes.
The easiest way to get the answers is to visit the office on the 12th floor of the north block of the general building at NCCU. Applying for the Master’s program will probably require submitting copies of academic transcripts, references, etc. The application period is usually in March/April so if you start gathering the documents together now you will be ready just in time!
That would indeed be much easier–unfortunately I’m stuck in Canada! As you said, I should be able to get everything ready in time, I just don’t relish the prospect of having to do all this frustrating administrative stuff, I had enough of that with applying to grad school :fume:
I’ve got one more question for anyone who has taken part-time classes in the Asia-Pacific Studies program. I’ve been corresponding with an admin assistant who claims that even though I only want to take one course per semester, I still need to pay a 25k/semester “registration fee” in addition to tuition costs which are 16.5k/class. This seems outlandishly expensive to me, far more than I pay for tuition even in Canada! Can anyone confirm if this is indeed the case? I ask because this admin assistant doesn’t speak English very well and I’m thinking she may be misunderstanding something. Thanks for the help!
Well, there is a basic fee -administrative costs- that no matter how many courses you take, it’s fixed, but AFAIK and remember, it was not 25k. Credits I know are a bit pricey, though.
Add fixed National Health Insurance -about 600 nts for students, I think.
Sorry to resurrect my old thread, but in case anyone else is looking for this info I wanted to add that those steep registration fees are only required for degree students; if, like me, you just want to take a few classes, you can be a non-degree student and just pay 5500nt per credit (most courses are 3 credits).
So it all worked out. Thanks to everyone who lent a hand! Really looking fwd to studying at NCCU
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