MA/MBA study in Taiwan

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

As of right now I’ve spent about 2.5 years in Taiwan, studying before, and now working for an English school. I originally didn’t want to teach English since I was a Chinese major in school, and was hoping to use that to my advantage. Now that I’ve been doing it for a half a year, I have found myself enjoying it. The only problem is, I still have different career aspirations, and there isn’t much room for advancement when you teach in a buxiban (especially if you don’t want to work in teaching).

My contract is up in August, and being a huge fan of Taiwan, I’d like to stay for another year or two. However, I don’t think I would be comfortable only teaching for another year. I had though about getting the MOE scholarship and studying Mandarin again, but frankly my Chinese is quite fluent, and I feel like I could be doing something better with my time. I have been talking to my branch manager lately (yes, I actually have friendly, helpful, and reasonable management at my buxiban), and she expressed her desire for me to remain at the school for another year. I told her that English teaching wasn’t my original purpose for coming back to Taiwan, and we began discussing getting my Masters while I work at night.

Although I’m not even quite sure if I want my Masters or MBA, I figure I can justify staying in Taiwan for a few more years if I’m working towards a degree which will help me out in terms of future career opportunities. However, I have a few questions regarding Masters study here:

  1. Is it feasible to get morning-only classes and still complete my MA in two years?
  2. Are there any other scholarships available apart from the MOE ones? From what I read it seems like you need to apply for those from your home country.
  3. Can I legally study and work at the same time here? I’m on an ARC right now, and if I worked for another year at my branch I would get another one…just not sure how student/work visas work.
  4. Should I just give up on Taiwan, bite the bullet and get a job in China? (you don’t have to answer this one).
2
  1. You would need to contact the school you’re interested in and find out about their timetables etc and/or folk who’ve done their programmes - not just ‘I’ve heard that…’.
  2. Again, contact the unis you’re interested in, many have their own programmes. People have come here on Mandarin Enrichment Schols (which, as you’ve studied here before, you would not be eligible for, although there is a Language Enrichment Programme available as a preliminary to the Taiwan Schol Programme) and gone on to the Taiwan Programme, so it seems it has at least been possible in the past. Check with the TRO that would deal with your application, don’t go on any sort of hearsay whatsoever!! :laughing: BTW, deadline is FAST approaching - end of this month!
  3. Not very likely unless your ARC etc is a work related one and you study on the side which, given the intensity of higher education programmes here, I can’t see myself surviving, but you might be young and energetic!! :smiley:
  4. If you want to stay here, you’ll find a way. Personally, I have a count-down on my laptop desktop until when we leave…

Oh, how negative that sounded, but I am VERY tired and ready for a good dose of home!!

3

Hoping to be a little helpful:

  1. Yes, I have two good friends who did exactly this. One even balanced becoming a father along with it!

  2. Don’t know about this. I thought MOE scholarships were available here.

  3. Just keep your work visa from the buxiban, if you have one.

  4. That’s a toughie and a question you need to answer yourself, but if you like TW so much, why give up on it?

Good luck.

4

[quote=“Edaren”]As of right now I’ve spent about 2.5 years in Taiwan, studying before, and now working for an English school. I originally didn’t want to teach English since I was a Chinese major in school, and was hoping to use that to my advantage. Now that I’ve been doing it for a half a year, I have found myself enjoying it. The only problem is, I still have different career aspirations, and there isn’t much room for advancement when you teach in a buxiban (especially if you don’t want to work in teaching).

My contract is up in August, and being a huge fan of Taiwan, I’d like to stay for another year or two. However, I don’t think I would be comfortable only teaching for another year. I had though about getting the MOE scholarship and studying Mandarin again, but frankly my Chinese is quite fluent, and I feel like I could be doing something better with my time. I have been talking to my branch manager lately (yes, I actually have friendly, helpful, and reasonable management at my buxiban), and she expressed her desire for me to remain at the school for another year. I told her that English teaching wasn’t my original purpose for coming back to Taiwan, and we began discussing getting my Masters while I work at night.

Although I’m not even quite sure if I want my Masters or MBA, I figure I can justify staying in Taiwan for a few more years if I’m working towards a degree which will help me out in terms of future career opportunities. However, I have a few questions regarding Masters study here:

  1. Is it feasible to get morning-only classes and still complete my MA in two years?

  2. Are there any other scholarships available apart from the MOE ones? From what I read it seems like you need to apply for those from your home country.

  3. Can I legally study and work at the same time here? I’m on an ARC right now, and if I worked for another year at my branch I would get another one…just not sure how student/work visas work.

  4. Should I just give up on Taiwan, bite the bullet and get a job in China? (you don’t have to answer this one).[/quote]

  5. It could be feasible, depending on the program. My MBA catered to working people, so it was mostly nights, getting a lot of complaints from fulltime students. Plus, you have to take into account the time devoted to teh thesis, which sometimes goes a bit over…

  6. Each university has scholarships, plus there are at least 3 kinds. It mostly depends on your nationality.

  7. You can work and then study on teh side. Truth be told, there could be problems with your contract, but then again, you definetively cannot be a student that works. That could be problematic. If you already have a visa for work, then you just go to study and that study is not mentioned anywhere in your ARC or visa motivation.

  8. Why? Think about what you want, what you like. Just because everyone says that is the Promised Land, it may not be the same for you. If you like the chaos and freedom and warmth of Taiwan, maybe teh Mainland may not be your cup of tea. Do you have a pet? Do you have friends here? Do you want to start all over again? It is doable, but harder? If you want to continue your studies, can you do it there?

If I were you, I’d be looking into teh translation programs here, or something really useful for your career plans. Maybe teh China Studies stuff, maybe the Communications/Journalism, perhaps even History. Teaching Chinese as a Second language perhaps? Not everyone has to get an MBA. There are more options open to furriners now.

I worked and I studied. It’s hard, and it took me longer, actually, to be sincere, but I am a lazybones and you probably are younger and more energetic than I was. It can be done and has been done on time.

When I decided to stay, I had little money saved, no job prospects, no support. You are already in a good place, with a steady job in thsi econmy. For me, it has worked out because I wanted to stay here and took every chance I found along the way to make it happen. I gave what I call a “leap of faith”. You want to stay? Just do it. In Spanish we say: las cargas se arreglan por el camino. Picture a donkey loaded with stuff, all unevenly packed. As he walks, the packages fall into place. But if he stays in one place, what he has on will fall. So: Keep walking.

5

Thanks for all of the helpful advice, everyone.

I’m going to start contacting schools here this week and see what sort of study programs/scholarships I can get into. I know NTU does some scholarships, as well as NCCU, but they generally seem to be aimed at Taiwan’s diplomatic partners. I have a former classmate who is doing his Masters in translation at NTNU, I may ask him what sort of money he got.

The reason I bring up China is because whenever I speak to foreign or Taiwanese friends about the lack of non-teaching jobs in Taiwan, they always suggest I go to China for work. I know I would have a lot more opportunities there, but I spent 5 months in Beijing and I infinitely prefer Taipei as a place to live.

6

If a career away from teaching is what you want, going to mainland China doesn’t make sense. While there are more TEACHING jobs there, you won’t make as much money. Pay is a lot less there.

If you want an MA or MBA, you COULD do it in Taiwan, but why? If you want a really good post secondary education, go back home to the west for awhile. There just isn’t much quality in postsecondary education anywhere in Asia (besides HK and Australia).

Has anyone done a distance education thing here? I really don’t know. I wouldn’t do that in China, though, because you never know when these websites are going to be blocked.

My opinion is that you aught to pack up, go home, think about it for awhile, and enroll in a post secondary school after you given it a good bit of thought.

7

If you’re thinking about getting a graduate degree in the hard sciences, I don’t think Taiwan is that bad a place. You have to publish in international journals to graduate, so that’s already something tons of mediocre PhD students in the States can’t do.

I probably wouldn’t get an advanced degree in engineering in Taiwan, or other Asian countries because if it’s not ABET certified it’s essentially a quack degree.

As far as MBA goes, there are quite a few programs and they’re of decent quality from what I’ve heard. Plus, the cost of B school is much lower in Taiwan than in the US, so if you’re thinking about working in international commerce it might be useful. Although I certainly wouldn’t turn down my acceptance at Wharton over NTU B-school if I were you.