How likely do you think it is that exchange students can enter Taiwan by September 2021? I hope that some of you can give me some educated guesses. Of course everything depends on the future development and is uncertain.
I am a student form Switzerland who received a scolarship for an exchange semester at NTU in fall 2021. Chances are that I will be vaccinated by summer 21. I really hope that I can go to Taiwan. But if you think that it is very unlikely, then I would try with plan B, which I have to decide soon.
The timeline you mentioned is quite far away, so it is difficult to predict what regulations will be in place at that time.
I will say however that the authorities in Taiwan (including Health Minister Chen, who has been the primary spokesperson for COVID related matters during the pandemic) have downplayed vaccination as a primary or sole determination of safety or health. They seem to view it as part of a range of public health strategies which include: mandatory quarantine for 14 days; mask wearing; hand washing; social distancing; etc. All this is to say that being vaccinated would be great, yes, but do not expect this to have any bearing whatsoever in terms of the other public health measures in place. At least that is the case now, as it remains unclear if vaccination has any impact on virus transmission (that is Minister Chen’s assessment as I understand it).
Nobody of course knows, but a guess could be something like this:
Probability of being able to enter as a tourist by then: 0%
Probability of being able to enter as an exchange student: 25%
The problem of being an exchange student only is that for a university it is much more important to get regular students into the country than an exchange student. And language students for example are currently not able to enter Taiwan.
Also ask this question in some of the Facebook groups for foreigners in Taiwan. Some of the people there are quite knowledgeable on student stuff
Keep in mind that the Taiwan News article linked above pertains to degree seeking international students and MOFA scholarship recipients with advanced Mandarin. The latter really pushed to make this happen—kudos to them:
Unfortunately it seems exchange students have not yet been included. I agree that the OP should keep in touch with the university in question—the relevant people to talk to should be in the Office of International Affairs.
EDIT: My error, as per @mortauxmoi , Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (華語文獎學金) recipients are still unable to get visas.
Keep in mind that the authorities in Taiwan—as elsewhere in the world—keep tinkering with their policies as the situation unfolds. Who knows what the situation will look like in late summer /early fall?
If you do make it to Taiwan, keep in mind that quarantine measures on arrival will almost certainly still be in place. Plan accordingly.
