Asian Angle | Taiwan university alliances leading the way in reviving Philippine educational exchanges
- Taiwanese and Philippine tertiary institutes had been on track to deepen exchanges and projects when the pandemic stalled progress
- While things are looking up again, reviving and sustaining post-pandemic initiatives should not be the sole efforts of universities alone
For instance, more Filipino scholars are doing postgraduate studies in Taiwan, while officials are seeking to finalise and renew agreements on academic and student exchanges.
Many of these partnerships, however, involve universities that are mainly in Taipei, to the dismay of those institutions outside the capital city which have been facing rapidly-decreasing enrolments and a growing number of Taiwanese students departing for Western universities.
In the southern Kaohsiung City, universities have since 2015 tried to fend off the looming disaster by establishing the Southern Taiwan University Alliance (STUA) and the Edu-Connect Southeast Asia Association, popularly known as Edu-Connect.
The two alliances have been aggressively pursuing educational collaboration with the Philippine higher education sector. University members of each network have been organising delegations composed of university officials, professors, entrepreneurs and civil society leaders to carry out academic and business-matching activities with their Philippine counterparts.
By focusing on Philippine state universities and colleges, these Taiwanese institutions have been able to contact Filipino academics as far as the Mindanao region.