According to the 2020 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, there were 23,369 Taiwanese students enrolled at colleges and universities in the U.S. in the 2019–2020 academic year, an increase for the fifth year in a row. And the largest proportion of these students—39.3%—were enrolled in graduate programs.

The Ministry of Education has established a range of scholarship programs to encourage Taiwanese students to study abroad: some provide full financial support, some provide partial support. Among these, the Government Scholarships for Overseas Study (GSOS) program has provided fellowships to outstanding students to undertake degree studies in the US since 1955 assisting numerous scholars, researchers, educators, and artists.

Another, the Ministry of Education’s Top 100 University Scholarship Program, launched a decade ago, is an initiative to encourage Taiwanese students to undertake a PhD at one of the partner universities ranked among the top 100 in the world. These jointly funded scholarships include the Taiwan Caltech Graduate Scholarship, the Taiwan USC Scholarship, the Taiwan Washington University in St. Louis Scholarship, and the Taiwan – UC Berkeley Fellowship.

The Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, an overseas office of the Ministry, also works with the Yin Chin Foundation of U.S.A. and the J. Yang and Family Foundation, two private charitable foundations that offer fellowship and scholarship opportunities for Taiwanese students to pursue higher degrees.

The Yin Chin Foundation of U.S.A. offers up to six scholarships each year for Taiwanese students who are already enrolled in a graduate program at a university in Southern California. Continuing students are also welcome to apply. The J. Yang and Family Foundation, established by Mr. Jackson Yang, a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur, has worked with five prestigious universities and colleges in Southern California since 2019—Caltech, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, and ArtCenter College of Design—to offer fellowships and grants that benefit Taiwanese students and enhance educational links and academic cooperation between these receiving institutions and Taiwan.

Claire Tai-jung Kuo, a J. Yang Scholar at Caltech, successfully defended her thesis in December 2020 and was awarded a PhD in materials science. Claire expressed her gratitude to the J. Yang and Family Foundation for its generous support of her and other Taiwanese students, saying that the fellowship was critical to her being able to finish her PhD program. Claire will soon be joining the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company as a principal engineer.

The Education Division wishes Claire and all the other scholarship recipients all the best in their future endeavors. Students who would like more information about these programs providing financial support to study in the U.S. are welcome to visit the MOE website at https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ED2500/Content_List.aspx?n=62011D1866DE25AD or the Education Division’s webpage at https://www.tw.org/ch4.html