News from Shoufu University in Tainan apparently confirmed:
Video watchable here: https://twitter.com/RadioTaiwan_Eng/status/1526866616310386689?cxt=HHwWgsCqyaHGwrAqAAAA
Guy
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It’s mainly hospitality, I believe, so the recent foreign tourism downturn might have been a factor. Overseas students aren’t likely to choose to study in Taiwan in such a situation. However, a lack of Taiwanese 18 year olds would be the main reason.
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One more private university will be closing next year, this time in Yilan County.
Guy
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Wow, Wikipedia says their enrollment was 1,830
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I applied for the PhD program at NTU (Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures) and despite being ranked 1 in the department’s graduate program, they didn’t even give me an interview. Turns out nobody was taken on; just wished they’d come out and announced the fact in advance and not wasted applicants’ time.
Point is, if they’re not even going to provide a route into academia for the best students at the best university, can it be so surprising that sooner or later interest dries up? My MA is basically worthless here, my entire motivation was to keep studying. (Not enamored of going to NTNU, etc.)
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Doctoral program admissions can be tricky. It really depends on the members of the committee, who tends to be more circumspect than other admissions committees given the length of the program.
If it’s your goal to continue studying, I’d encourage you to talk with your advisor and not give up. I’d also encourage you not to put all your eggs in one basket. Given what I’ve seen happen over the years, this kind of all-or-nothing approach could unfortunately lead to more delays.
Guy
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My girlfriend got her ba in literature and philosophy at fu Jen. Maybe you can take a look at that school? I know it’s catholic but it seems to have a pretty decent reputation at least in Taiwan
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Thanks. The fact that PhD programs are largely taught in Taiwan makes the distance from my home to campus a factor, given I would still be toiling in a cram school most days. Fu Jen is way out there; I remember going past it to visit the institution for folks with Hansen’s disease.
There’s also the general lack of enough classes taught in English each semester to graduate on time, so I will try and get into NTU/NTNU where I can take classes from each uni.
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I also have this issue. I got accepted to a university (NCCU) which is all the way out by the zoo. But I currently live in tamsui 
. I’m going to have no choice but to try and find work either in tamsui or at the University.
Usually, public school teachers in taiwan can be granted time during the school day to attend PhD courses. However, it turns out foreign teachers don’t count the same as teachers here. I guess that’s why we have different contracts. So we aren’t eligible for the same sort of benefits (but in exchange we get higher salaries and clearly defined working hours)
This means I’ll end up having to quit in order to attend my PhD since its so far away it’s not really feasible to work full time, then go to class until 9 and ride bus/mrt over 2 hours to get home
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North Taiwan’s St. John’s University is running short on cash as enrollment has dwindled.
Located in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, the 57-year-old school was jointly founded by alumni of St. Mary’s Hall in Shanghai and the American Episcopal Church in Taiwan after the then-Chinese Nationalist Party-ruled Republic of China relocated to Taiwan. The school opened for classes in 1967 and offered degrees mainly in industrial engineering.
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252 college professors have been dismissed due to the closure of six universities, including Yung Ta Institute of Technology & Commerce (永達技術學院) and Toko University (稻江管理學院). Some professors chose to return to their hometown to become farmers …
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Surely this is ringing alarm bells in the powers that be?
Interesting that more isn’t being done about the demographic shift generally
But about universities:
- They probably don’t care if some bottom of the barrel private universities get cut. The national universities will get enough students, they just have to lower expectations
- The MOE is trying to facilitate a transition to more teaching in English, which will make it easier to recruit international students. We’ll see how that works out
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I need that Line sticker with the grabbing the belly and pointing and laughing. Can you import Line stickers into Forumosa?
I know professors at Taiwan’s top national universities that are English and Linguistics professors who got their Masters and PhD’s at decent universities in the US who cannot carry on a basic conversation with me in English without a lot of struggle and “I forgot how to say it”. Our conversations, no matter how much I try to make them English-only, always end up being completely in Chinese because they just. can’t. speak. English.
I can’t wait for 2030 when professors with even lower English ability (cuz no English proficiency test in Taiwan actually tests one’s English ability) are expected to teach all subjects. I’ll be in a seat in the back with a giant tub of popcorn.
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My experience differs. The majority of professors I know are pretty good at English and are trying their best to deliver a challenging objective.
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Is this issue one of the reasons for the various courses/programs that Taiwanese universities do aimed at ASEAN/African students?
I mean the courses/programs where the universities keep getting busted for forcing the slaves students to go work in factories and slaughterhouses etc. 
They might need to work on their marketing a bit, anyway. 
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It’s a feature!
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Yeah, IIRC some of the universities referred to it as an “internship”…
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HAN is Human Applicant Number, without a HAN you are a NAN, which is a Notional Alien Number.
Mine also differs, and we both actually work at universities here…
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