Thailand is one of the fastest growing markets among ASEAN countries, heading toward an economic and industrial transformation driven by the national strategy, “Thailand 4.0.” One vision for this initiative is to cultivate “competent human beings” in the 21sth century, with a definite goal of raising Thailand Human Development Index to a higher level, on the top 50 countries within 10 years. Over the “Thailand 4.0” policy scheme designed to promote and support innovation, creativity, higher technologies and green technologies, human resources is regarded as the policy backbone and capacity-building consequently comes to be a vital element to energize the momentum of this policy. It is Taiwan’s success in developing a sound and comprehensive educational system and infrastructure for cultivating creative and innovative human resources that will make a remarkable contribution to the harvest of the Thailand 4.0 initiative.
Taiwan has been enjoying a high reputation for advanced educational development at all levels in quality and quantity and the building of a mature environment for research and development, and an open and free climate for international education exchange and cooperation. Over recent years, Taiwan has earned a worldwide acknowledgment for her top-quality universities, affordable tuition and enormous scholarship, Chinese-learning programs, talent cultivation and, more importantly, a learning ambiance for innovation and change. With 70 universities and 85 technological universities and colleges, Taiwan has a remarkable abundance of higher education opportunity and access.
The excellence of quality and influence has been again praised by some recent international recognition: 11 Taiwan’s universities are among the top 100 in Asia according to 2018 British QS Asia University Rankings; 31 universities are among the top 250 universities according to 2018 Times Higher Education Asia-Pacific University Rankings. Taiwan’s higher education quality has been highly recognized not only by the international, but also by Thai government. In March 2018, Thai cabinet approved to invite National Taiwan University (NTU) to establish its overseas campus in Thailand, the only foreign university invited so far.
To work closely with the government’s technology and innovation capacity-building commitment, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand (TECO) has conducted a survey indicating that 702 departments/ graduate institutes of Taiwan ‘s 30 universities can cultivate talents of high technology for the 10 industries of Thailand 4.0. The premium asset of Taiwan higher education will proves constructive in building a creative and innovative manpower needed by the 4.0. sectors.
Noteworthy to mention, the affordable tuition and enormous scholarships both make Taiwan’s higher education resources more accessible to international students. Generally speaking, tuition for undergraduate/graduate program is around USD 1,500-2,000 per semester. Furthermore, Taiwan’s government and universities provide enormous scholarships to attract global excellent students. With the implementation of Taiwan government’s “New Southbound Policy” committed to promoting a close and comprehensive relationship with ASEAN countries, the government provides about 25 full-scholarships to Thai students, and the universities offer around 1,200 scholarships. Those scholarships are becoming appealing and enjoying a good word of mouth, not merely because of the excellence of programs, but also because of an open, free, inclusive and multicultural social climate for studying in Taiwan.
One recent opportunity is “Taiwan Scholarship Program”, now open for application until the end of March. The program provides tuition and miscellaneous expenses (up to NTD 40,000 ) and living allowance (a monthly stipend of NTD 15,000/ 20,000 for university undergraduate/ master’s degree, doctorate studies program recipients) to each outstanding scholarship recipient. For more information, please go to join LINE@TTedu, a single integrated contact window for inquiry and communication in both Thai and English. Studying is Taiwan now becomes a fad for many international students especially from ASEAN countries (more experience-sharing stories, please check out the website https://www.studyintaiwan.org).
With the advantage of education resources and opportunity, Taiwan will be a favorable cradle and incubator for cultivating a creative and innovative talent underpinning “Thailand 4.0” as a lifting gear for economic and industrial re-engineering. For Thai government and education institutions committed to human resources innovation and technology capacity-building, Taiwan is definitely a desirable partner capable of sharing out the education asset. Taiwan’s government and education and research institutions are forthcoming to provide an abundance of talent cultivation programs helpful in creating a competent manpower essential to achieve the goal of “Thailand 4.0.”