A glimpse of the Taiwan Education Center in Jakarta’s session during the online Taiwan Higher Education Fair

On June 20, the Taiwan Education Center in Surabaya at Asia University hosted the Taiwan Higher Education Fair Online 2020, in conjunction with the Taiwan Education Center in Jakarta and the Taiwan Education Center in Yogyakarta, and with the support and assistance of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and the Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Trade Office, Jakarta, Indonesia (TETO).   

Taiwan Higher Education Fairs are a wonderful opportunity for students to find out more about higher education in Taiwan and opportunities to study there but the Covid-19 outbreak all around the world led to many being cancelled, ant to each of the Taiwan Education Centers now providing free digital consultations. For this reason, this year’s Taiwan Higher Education Fair for Indonesia was held online after being well promoted beforehand. The Taiwan Education Center in Jakarta, for example, has built a partnership with the Indonesia Student Association in Taiwan which promoted the Fair on its Instagram page. Representatives of 27 universities in Taiwan participated.

In fact having the fair online made participating much more accessible for Indonesians on the island of Java, and also for Indonesians in other locations. It went for about 12 hours from 8.30 am West Indonesia Time via YouTube Live, and turned out to be fun as well as informative. More than 1,200 students actively participated and it’s had more than 2,500 viewers.

The online fair was divided into three main parts, coordinated by the Taiwan Education Centers in Surabaya, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta respectively. Grace Ou, the Director of the Education Division at TETO told the participating students about the commitment of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to continue providing support to Indonesian students to study in Taiwan, with its Taiwan Scholarship program for degree students, and its Huayu Enrichment Scholarship program, for Chinese language students. Representatives of 27 universities in Taiwan participated throughout the day and a Q & A session after each Taiwan university spokesperson gave participants a valuable opportunity to ask for and hear more details.

This first online Taiwan Higher Education Fair was a great success. It ended with a session led by an Asia University team talking about scholarship opportunities to undertake master’s degree and doctoral degree programs there and giving away some “door” prizes for some lucky participants