TECO Education Division Brings the Global Experience of Taiwan to Australian Students
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education offers many scholarships to Australian students that provide excellent opportunities to go abroad and experience academic and cultural immersion in Taiwan. But these opportunities need to be well publicized so that students can apply to take advantage of them. For this reason, during March Wei-Chen Flora Lee 李瑋禎, Secretary at the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia travelled from Canberra to three major Australian universities to tell students about various possibilities to study in Taiwan. Flora went to the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, and to the University of New South Wales, and Macquarie University, both located in Sydney.
Her first stop was to take part in this year’s Study Overseas Fair at the University of Melbourne—the Global Experience Fair 2026, held on March 17. Representatives of the university’s international partners, universities and other tertiary institutions around the globe, and diplomatic missions—including the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia—set up areas to interact with the students.
Secretary Lee spoke with many students about the possibilities Taiwan offers for a global experience. The most commonly asked questions were about summer exchanges and student exchanges as part of their university programs. The Fair itself was very global in its nature: Davidson Yue, who studied at National Taiwan University as a New Colombo Plan Scholar stopped at the TECO stall and talked with students about his experiences studying abroad. He described Taiwan as a culturally enriching, accessible study destination. Some of the students said that they’d already applied for a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to learn Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan and were looking forward to the possibility. Sasha Spurna, who was at the fair as Exchange Co-ordinator at Aalto University in Finland, introduced herself to Flora as a previous Huayu Enrichment Scholarship recipient.
The UNSW Exchange Expo held at the University of New South Wales on March 30 showcased international exchanges and short courses available for UNSW students. The students Flora spoke with at the Expo were particularly interested in Taiwan’s technology. Many students doing information technology programs asked about dual degrees with universities in Taiwan.
The next day, March 31, Flora took part in a Study in Taiwan event at Macquarie University, organized by the Faculty of Arts. Some of the students spoke about the immersive language learning experience they’d had at National Cheng Kung University with Ministry of Education subsidies. This included visits to local historical sites and cultural experiences. They’d each been allocated a “language buddy” and this helped them drastically improve their Mandarin Chinese abilities in a short amount of time. The Macquarie University students were very proactive about graduate employability and many asked about the possibilities for gaining international work experience in Taiwan.
It’s very encouraging to see Taiwan’s emerging popularity among Australian students as a study destination and also as a career development destination.
