Foreign Universities in Taiwan
An article in today's Taiwan News
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/06/11/1055293859.htm
announced that the legislature is moving toward allowing foreign universities to open their campuses in Taiwan. The article states that top schools such as Harvard or Oxford are not likely to open a campus here, as they have not established any international campuses. "There's just no demand", the article concludes.
This is all backward. Sure there is a demand for it. Every student in Taiwan would apply if Harvard opened a campus here. The demand isn't from the student-side, but from the school-side; the school has no demand for that many Taiwanese alumni. Let's be realistic about this; how many Taiwanese are accepted to Harvard each year? Probably one. And I bet some years, it's none. And that's the point. If everyone in Taiwan could get in, would the degree be exclusive?
Just look at Japan with 10 times the population of Taiwan and a much more competitive education system. What are the foreign schools operating there? The major foreign school operating in Japan in Temple University. Temple offers education and TESOL graduate programs taught by its own first-rate faculty from the US. As far as I know, no other foreign school has but their own campus there. The same is true for Korea with twice the population of Taiwan. I know of several joint programs operating there, but no foreign school has their own campus in Korea.
It will be a long, long time before any major educational institution from the West builds their own facilities here, so don't be expecting foreign influence to have much affect here.
9:23:48 PM 
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