MOE Approved Schools Abroad Hot List

Legal Visa & Residency
21

if it is for buxiban,
Operational Manual for Reviewing Employment
Permit Application of Foreign Teachers at
Cram School says

  1. If the foreigner was graduated from a
    school not in the reference list of
    Ministry of Education, a document that
    proves such degree equals to a
    university or college degree issued by
    the local educational competent
    authorities shall be provided. If the
    document was issued by a nation that
    requires validation, both the document
    and the degree certificate shall be
    validated by the representative office of
    R.O.C. in that nation. The original
    validation document (will returned to
    the applicant after reviewing) shall be
    submmitted when applying to Ministry
    of Labor.
1 Like
22

Thanks for the link. They’ve changed the site address so many times over the past decade that’s it’s difficult to keep up.

EDIT: I’ve always heard that online degrees are not acceptable here, yet I see University of Phoenix and DeVry University, two well-known online universities. So I guess this could be good news for online degree seekers?

23

As I mentioned earlier, there seems to be a difference between “correspondence learning” and “distance learning” in the recognition rules. I haven’t heard back from TECRO yet and am thinking I’ll probably have to call them rather than wait for a response to email. Also going to try contacting DEAC (same accreditation authority that my school and at least one other online school are recognized) to see if they have any insights.

I’m thinking there has to be a process for applying for recognition; you can’t expect the MoE to proactively review all the universities in the world. Just have to find out how to get it done.

24

Ashford is on there too. They are a 100% online school. No campus. They’ve been on that list for at least 10 years.

25

Mine is a government university and not online courses， yet it is not on the database. I do not know whether to continue with the application. Employer says only universities on database are recognized. Tecro instead says that if they authenticate the degree it is recognized. It is Confusing.

26

Hello Ppl:

Update: Sb at MOE must’ve taken my proposal letter to heart, for my college found its way onto the esteemed DRLFU.

That letter, btw, was sent in the summer of '19. It received no direct answer, though. Musings to be abroad prompted me poke around the list again. Behold! The school is there.

1 Like
27

The language at the top of the list (linked 2 posts above) make it clear it’s not intended to be the final word on what schools are recognized. I’d make sure your employer sees that part.

Yeah, the language clearly states that schools shouldn’t view the list as comprehensive and exclusive (or used to, I can’t find it anymore), but every one I’ve run across refers to it as if it’s the final word on who is and isn’t recognized by MoE. Super frustrating, but not at all surprising for anyone who’s spent a significant chunk of time here.

28

Ought I get to bugging them to include my school?

That’s what I’m doing. I went to the trouble of getting my diploma and transcripts stamped at TECRO but since my school’s not listed explicitly at MoE, I’m still getting the high hat. Fortunately, my wife is good at navigating official channels, but whether anything can be done before the hiring season is over is anybody’s guess.

29

Well it seems once again that this list has been moved as the old link doesn’t work anymore. Why do they insist on moving this every year?

Anyway, does anyone know where the approved list of schools is located now?

1 Like
30

You may find PDF files here.
The site is in Mandarin, but the lists there are bilingual.

https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2500/News.aspx?n=E8380E03A0E16960&sms=D2E10027BB4EC183

3 Likes
31

Quick guide for non-Mandarin readers: the top 5 (shorter URL) links are general info about policies in regions and probably won’t do you any good. The bottom 5 are the school lists, in order from top to bottom, for 1) N/S America 2) Europe 3) Asia 4) Oceania 5) Africa. Until they change it, of course. If they do that, search 台灣教育部外國大學參考名冊查詢系統 and the top hit should be what you want. They used to have an English option on the website but it looks like they decided that was too convenient.

32

I took a look and it made me wonder how the US list is organized. The names of the schools are alphabetical by states, I can see that. But how are the states listed? I thought maybe it went from east to west, but after the northeast states comes Puerto Rico, then it jumps to Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois…

33

I’ll give you the exact text of the email I got from tecro when I asked them why my authenticated diploma was still being refused:

hz,

As the overseas office, sorry we are not authorized to help anyone get his school recognized.

If you are applying for a job, it is advised you talk with your potential employer.

Thank you,
Education Division

As if the potential employer is going to do anything about it either. And this is what you get, an endless run-around being told to go ask somebody, anybody else, just don’t ask us because we know for a fact we’re not going to lift a finger.

There’s an actual way for a school to verify and recognize your credentials if your school isn’t on the MoE list, but it requires them giving a damn and taking a half hour or so of actual research to check if your school fulfills the requirements and lol, no, nobody has time to do any such thing.

In the meantime, about the only hope is to send info on your school to the MoE–one of these threads has a contact name and email, but I don’t know which one it is just off the top–one person got a school added, so it’s at least possible. This is just one of those times when Taiwan is absolutely useless about something basic but vital. Doesn’t happen often, luckily, but when it does…

34

I’m the sb who inspired this list & who managed a little parting of seas to have MOE acknowledge my school.

In its guise before the last move, the DRLFU page had a teensy string of text at the bottom listing the contact details of a semi-anonymous ‘Ms. Chang’: “Any questions or concerns, please contact Ms. Chang (049) 2910960 #2613 or datalist.assistant@gmail.com.”

Addressed squarely to her (unaddressed ver. had gone unanswered), I repurposed my inq. letter as a proposal. Sell, sell, sell…

35

I was offered a job in Taiwan last year and couldnt get a work permit because my uni was not on that list. I thought that if you get your degree notarized by Tecro then its recognized by MOE. Maybe I am wrong then.

36

Iiuc, just to get it notarized/authenticated is not enough. You should provide a document that proves the not-listed degree equals to a university or college degree issued by the local educational competent authorities in the reference list of Ministry of Education.

37

My purpose is for MBA in Taiwan. Most universities tell me that my uni name should be on the list for the embassy to issued a visa. Stamp alone is not enough, and in my case I got my bachelor degree from China Mainland :joy: Double the frustration because there is no Taiwan embassy or representatives there :cold_face: for this matter I kind of got solution (?) I guessss let’s see

As North-Star suggest, I will sent an email to datalist, praying she will respond to my email anytime soon. Thanks for the tip

38

Iiuc, just to get it notarized/authenticated is not enough.

This is correct. It’s my situation, currently.

You should provide a document that proves the not-listed degree equals to a university or college degree issued by the local educational competent authorities in the reference list of Ministry of Education.

If I’m reading the MoJ policy correctly, this is a little off. I don’t want to quote long passages here, but if you read it yourself (it’s in English), the relevant portion is in Articles 8 and 9. It’s on the university (the MoJ link is about university applications for students, but this MoE page–Chinese only, sorry–states that the same guidelines should be followed by employers) to check with your issuing institution, not you, if it doesn’t appear on the reference list. It says they have to create a panel to investigate if there’s any uncertainty after checking your school whether it satisfies the Article 4 requirements.

Plus, in the English version it says “shall,” not “should,” which iiuc in US law means “mandatory,” meaning that the employer can’t (according to policy anyway) just say sorry, your school’s not on the list so we can’t hire you. That’s why it says the list shouldn’t be regarded as final, not because your school still might not be good enough if it’s on the list, but because it may be just fine even if it’s not there.

But of course, not everybody follows these guidelines. It’s not 100% though, I have a couple of job applications in with universities who accepted my M.Ed because I got my diploma and transcripts authenticated at the tecro office in DC. It’s completely messed up that the Taichung public schools don’t seem to recognize it–that’s what Teach Taiwan is insisting, although I think in reality they could actually just choose to accept my credentials if they chose to.

As to the distance learning question, if you read Article 10 in the MoJ link, it says correspondence degrees are no good, but one earned in “distance mode” from a university is OK as long as it satisfies Article 4, which says nothing at all about how many classes have to be attended in person.

So anyway, get your degree authenticated no matter what. If you want to get anything beyond the k-12 level other than cram schools, you’re going to need it. And thankfully, at least some schools are good enough with the authenticated documents (get your transcripts done too, though, assume it will be required) even if your school isn’t on the vaunted List.

Honestly though, it’s such a clunky system. They really should do something about it at MoE, or at least answer emails.

39

I think the relevant point starts from Article 4.

Only foreign academic records that satisfy each of the following provisions may be assessed for recognition:
…
An educational institution not in the reference list shall have been accredited by the government authority responsible for such educational institutions or by the professional accreditation agency for education in the country where it is located.

The assesment in the law refers to the determination by the institution of higher education handling an application whether the foreign academic credentials and documentary records submitted by an applicant are equivalent to those issued by an educational institution in Taiwan of an equivalent academic level and nature, as in Article 3. So, it could be applicant’s duty to provide the proof that the institute that issued the degree is accredited by their government authority.

And, for work permits of buxiban and elementary to high school teachers, the documents to prove it is explicitly required by the authorities. Plus, the law you linked is not applied for those teachers.

40

I think the relevant point starts from Article 4.

I think that’s a misreading of Article 4. The intent appears to be that the school should already possess accreditation from the responsible local gov’t authority, and the hiring/accepting institution in Taiwan is responsible for verifying those credentials.