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[romanworld]

A recent article at www.wantchinatimes.com is predicting that by 2016:

There will be a decrease of 50,000 students in the freshman intake for the country's universities for 2016 from current levels . . .

Now what are the solutions to this drastic shortfall in numbers? Well, according to the Vice Minister of Education, Chen Yi-hsing:

. . . the drop in students will provide an opportunity to redistribute resources and assign more teachers to the development of educational materials and methodologies.

And he goes on to say that:

. . . the government should devise ways to distribute surplus teachers in the future to community colleges and other educational institutions.

Profound logic here: Get teachers designing materials for invisible students and shift surplus teachers to other schools to teach in empty classrooms.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20130905000019&cid=1104

But hold your horses. Although these classrooms will not be populated with Taiwanese students, those bright sparks at the MOE have got another ace to play. Yes, you've guessed it folks. They're gonna recruit students from overseas to counter the shortfall. Here's the plan:

The student recruitment programme is designed, in part, as a solution to Taiwan's declining birth rate, said the Education Minister, Chiang Wei-ling. The MOE wishes to recruit approximately 100,000 foreign students to study in Taiwan, making up about 2 per cent of the nation's college students.

The falling birth rate - resulting in a smaller student population - is an inevitable phenomenon in Taiwan, but it can be partially solved by admitting students from China and other foreign countries, Chiang noted.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/taiwan-attract-overseas-chinese-students-offset-low-birth-rate

Notice readers the word "wishes" to recruit. This is just a pipe dream cooked up by mandarins at the MOE who haven't got a clue about what's going on in the real world. First of all, the plan to recruit students from mainland China has already been tried, but failed miserably:

All of these factors result in severe under-enrolment from mainland China. For example, in both 2010 and 2011 Taiwan allocated 2,000 places to degree-seeking students from the mainland, but both years fewer than half were filled.

http://monitor.icef.com/2012/12/taiwan-counters-enrolment-shortfalls-with-university-mergers/

Secondly, in typical fashion, the powers that be in Taipei believe that their education, along with their amazing cultural traditions and super friendly people will save the day. The sad truth is that Chinese students, or other international students in the region, have absolutely no interest in studying in a Third World country when they could study in Europe or North America. The fact that Taiwan thinks it can challenge the educational hegemony of the US, the UK, Germany, Holland, Australia and Canada is quite simply laughable. Most Taiwanese students who are worth their salt in the classroom have their sights set on an overseas education, which is why Taiwan will always be a "sending market" and never a "receiving" one.

http://monitor.icef.com/2012/12/taiwan-counters-enrolment-shortfalls-with-university-mergers/

The simple truth is that Taiwan's birth rate will continue to fall and more schools will be forced to merge initially and then close. The writing's on the wall, and any serious tefler(backpackers excluded) would be well advised to give Taiwan a wide berth. Or should that be birth?