Scholarship in Taiwan

Do you know, Taiwan has been offering a lot of scholarship programs for foreign students to pursue their further studies in Taiwan? Scholarship programs in Taiwan can be broadly classified into two, which are:

1. Scholarship offered by Taiwan government through Ministry of Education

Ministry of Education (MOE) doesn’t limit the university you want to attend. As far as it is located in Taiwan, you can choose any university you want and apply for MOE scholarship. Once you get the scholarship, you are the one who has responsibility to manage all the money, for example: paying for academic tuition to your university by yourself.

Until the end of 2011, MOE offers around NT$ 30,000 per month for those eligible students. By means, you will get around NT$ 360,000 within 1 year. Nice huh? But when I checked their website, they have revised the scholarship granting since January 2012.

For scholarship recipient, MOE offers up to NT$ 40,000 per semester (one academic year = 2 semesters) to pay all the tuition fee plus monthly stipend around NT$ 10,000 (for undergraduate student) to NT$ 20,000 (for postgraduate student). The amount is decreased from last year, but it is still huge compared to the scholarship offered by university. If your tuition fee per semester exceeds the amount they give to you, you have to cover the rest with your money.

You may face a tight competition to get MOE scholarship. MOE is really picky in terms of candidate’s academic achievement. Besides academic achievement screening, you have to pass their tough interview test too.

2. Scholarship offered by institution/ university

The amount of scholarship may vary between universities, locations, and degree you want to pursue. Most of the universities in Taiwan prefer to provide scholarship for postgraduate and doctoral students since their theses or dissertations would be beneficial for universities itself.

The selection process usually doesn’t require interview test (mostly, but depends on the university) so I would say it is easier to get than MOE scholarship (but it's still difficult though :)). The following public universities have a lot of international students because they have been keen on offering plenty of scholarships to foreign students:

Rank in Taiwan*	University
1th	National Taiwan University (國立台灣大學)
3th	National Cheng Kung University (國立成功大學)
5th	National Taiwan Normal University (國立台灣師範大學)
7th	National Central University (國立中央大學)
9th	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (國立台灣科技大學)
15th	National Taiwan Ocean University (國立台灣海洋大學)
18th	National Taipei University and Technology (國立台北科技大學)
48th	Asia University (亞洲大學)

*source of university ranks: here

The higher the rank, the stricter the competition for getting the scholarship. Of course, the other universities besides those I've already mentioned above also offer scholarship programs, just check their website.

Usually, there are four kinds of scholarship package offered by institution (depends on the university you apply for):

• 100% tuition waiver + monthly stipend
• 100% tuition waiver + partial monthly stipend
• 100% tuition waiver (only)
• partial tuition waiver

Through candidate academic achievement screening, they can decide which type of scholarship package will be awarded to you. 

Notes:

• From other experiences, it is nearly impossible to apply institutional scholarship as a backup if you fail in getting MOE scholarship. The reason is that deadline for accepting institutional scholarship usually  come earlier than the announcement of MOE scholarship award. In other word, after institution or university announce that you are eligible to get  the scholarship, they require you to confirm whether you want to accept or not. If you want to wait for MOE scholarship announcement, you will pass the date line. Moreover, if you have already accepted institutional scholarship, MOE scholarship won't be granted to you. 
• Usually, scholarship award period is for one academic year. For the next academic year, if you want to extend your scholarship award, you have to maintain your grades. Never below the minimum requirement they asked for! You gonna need your professor (advisor) recommendation letter too, so maintain a good relationship with him/her :-)
• From my experience, bring enough money with you when you first arrived in Taiwan to study (even you get the scholarship), because in many cases, the scholarship may come late. Mine came 3 months late at that time. For MOE scholarship recipient, make sure you bring enough money for covering the semester registration fee and living costs. For institutional scholarship recipient, make sure you bring enough money for covering living costs.

Good Luck!