3,000 foreign students who cannot come to Taiwan due to the epidemic lose 225 million yuan

Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic , although the colleges and universities have opened their full month, foreign students continue to enter the country under quarantine. The Minister of Education Liu Mengqi pointed out today that there are currently about 18,000 overseas students entering the country. However, due to the epidemic, 1,000 old students with a degree have dropped out and a rough estimate of 2,000 new students have given up their qualifications, and 3,000 will not come, resulting in loss of tuition income. About 225 million yuan.

The Ministry of Education as a whole roughly estimated that there were 16,000 new students abroad in the 109 academic year, which was the first negative growth in the past 10 years. Last year, there were about 17,000 new students abroad.

The Ministry of Education has gradually opened the entry of foreign students from the end of June. Due to limited flights and quarantine hotels, the speed of entry has been slow. From July to September, an average of 34 foreign students entered the country every day, reaching a peak of 280 people entering the country every day in September. In October, an average of 114 people entered the country every day. Liu Mengqi said that universities will close their registrations around October 24.

The Ministry of Education estimates that nearly 23,000 foreign students enrolled in this semester, of which two to three thousand have adopted the "Education with Peace" program and have registered, but they are still overseas, taking the form of distance learning. Three thousand foreign students were lost, mainly from India, the Philippines and Indonesia and most of them were university students. Calculated on the basis of the average annual tuition fee of public and private universities of 75,000 yuan, it is equivalent to the short collection of 225 million yuan in tuition fees for domestic universities.

As for Chinese-speaking students requesting to enter Taiwan to continue their studies, Liu Mengqi pointed out that after the degree students are processed at the end of October, they will discuss with the Central Epidemic Command Center whether to open entry for non-degree students. The first wave will be 450 non-degree students who have received scholarships from the Ministry of Education. Chinese-speaking students are given priority.