Dr. Yen-Yi Lee speaking at the opening of the 2021 Taiwan Higher Education Fair in Thailand

In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan commissioned National Pingtung University of Science and Technology to move this year’s biennial Thailand–Taiwan education fair to a virtual setting. 

The Thailand–Taiwan Online Education Exhibition for Higher Education and Chinese Language Learning, held on August 30th, was hosted by the Thailand–Taiwan Education Center. It was organized into sections on humanities and social sciences, business and financial management, science, engineering, medicine, Chinese language studies, and other areas of learning. 

Sixty tertiary colleges and universities in Taiwan participated, providing information on their featured courses, application procedures, and scholarships available, and they also took part in real-time interactive Q&A sessions. Thai people who formerly studied in Taiwan, also spoke, sharing details of their experiences, to give prospective students a better understanding of Taiwan’s higher education system and learning environment. 

The online education exhibition began with opening remarks made by Dr. Nicole Yen-Yi Lee, Director General of the Department of International and Cross-strait Education, Mr. Herbert Wei-Min Hsu, Deputy Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand, and Dr. Tai Chang-Hsien, the president of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Lee expressed her gratitude to the Thailand–Taiwan Education Center for organizing the online exhibition and for its work promoting bilateral higher education exchanges and cooperation. She assured students that universities in Taiwan all actively implement campus epidemic prevention measures in accordance with the policies of the Central Epidemic Command Center to provide a safe learning environment. She also emphasized the great importance that the Ministry of Education attaches to education cooperation between Taiwan and Thailand, pointing out that the number of scholarships available for Thai students is increasing year by year. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education provided 18 Taiwan Scholarships to Thai students to begin studying for a degree at a university in Taiwan in the 2021–2022 academic year, and it’s also offering scholarships to encourage Thai students to study Chinese in Taiwan.

There’s no limit to the number of people who can take part in a virtual fair. It’s a very easy way for students to check out universities they might want to attend: they can participate in the real-time enrollment briefings and ask questions on the universities’ individual message boards.

They can also browse through the information material about higher education and Chinese language studies in Taiwan, and find details of the admission requirements of universities that attract their interest. 

Teachers, students and parents in Thailand taking part in the exhibitions could also make inquiries about particular areas of study, and dedicated university personnel will respond in English or Thai. 

So far, the feedback has been very enthusiastic, with the first day of the exhibition attracting nearly 5,000 visitors. It is very clear that many of the Thai students who want to come to Taiwan hope to study business, engineering, and/or Chinese language courses—and there has been great interest in details about scholarships and courses taught in English.