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[romanworld]

Having tried to and failed to enroll students from Mainland China into its universities, Taiwan is now targeting the aged to offset falling enrollments due to a falling birth rate. As far back as 2008, the Taiwanese government, according to a recent article published at the BBC website, "began offering subsidised university courses for older people, as a way to help them live more active lives." The article goes on:

At first, older people had to be persuaded to attend college. Now they bring their friends and travel from other cities to take classes ranging from healthcare to history and law.

This year, 100 universities in Taiwan have offered these courses and the older student population has shot up from about 800 in 2008 to more than 3,000 today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24566388

The phrasal verb "shot up" seems to suggest a truly incredible spike in aged enrollments, but the sad truth is that, even with government subsidies acting as a carrot, enrollments among the elderly remain low. A jump from 800 to 3000 elderly students over a 5-year period suggests that around 600 new students are coming online annually, hardly enough to offset falling enrollments among the young.