Ministry of Education & Washington University in St. Louis Renew Taiwan WUSTL Scholarship Program
The Ministry of Education has established joint scholarships with fifteen leading universities around the world to encourage outstanding students from Taiwan to undertake doctorate programs. Among these is the Taiwan Washington University in St. Louis Scholarship. The Ministry of Education and Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2011, setting up the scholarship program to provide jointly funded scholarships for up to five students from Taiwan each year.
Dr. Nicole Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education of the Ministry of Education, and Dr. Andrew Martin, Chancellor of WUSTL, signed an MOU in June 2021 renewing this successful program for another five years.
Dr. Kurt Dirks, the Vice Chancellor of International Affairs at the university, said “Washington University is very proud of this partnership and what it has achieved. The program has been a great success for everyone involved – most of all the students. It has created the opportunity for many students to pursue their education and ultimately make important contributions to society.”
Since 2012, 39 students from Taiwan have received a Taiwan Washington University in St. Louis Scholarship and completed their PhD studies in a range of programs, including biomedical sciences, engineering and applied sciences, and social sciences.
Two graduates have returned to Taiwan to work as academics. Cheng Wan-Jung, a McDonnell Scholar from National Taiwan University, was awarded a PhD in economics and she is currently working in Taipei as an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica. Chao Wang was awarded a PhD in computer science and he is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information at National Taiwan Normal University. Others have gone onto faculty and post-doc positions at universities in the United States—including California Institute of Technology, Louisiana State University, and Washington University—or taken up important roles in industry and government, such as with the Intel Corporation, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).