Near the end of the semester in late December 2015, the education division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, organized an information session on studying in Taiwan.

Held on the Ho Chi Minh City campus of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), a member institution of the Vietnam National University, the event was very well attended. The 80 students who had registered online to participate listened attentively throughout the presentation, their eyes alight with hope.

While pop star Jolin Tsai’s “Taiwan Heartbeat” played in the background, the speakers used images of Taipei 101, majestic peaks, rugged shorelines, Mt. Ali, Sun Moon Lake, Kenting, Jiufen, and other Taiwanese landmarks to capture the students’ imaginations and fan the flames of their desire to study in Taiwan.

Cu Huy Hiep enthusiastically shares his Taiwan experience at an information session on study in Taiwan arranged by the Taiwan Education Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

Exporting education

In recent years, Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices in Southeast Asia have taken on a new mission: promoting study in Taiwan.

Aaron Chen, director of TECO Hanoi’s education division, says that Taiwan’s declining birthrate has threatened dozens of colleges and universities with enrollment crises. Recruiting abroad offers a solution. “Taiwan has outstanding institutions of higher learning, and these schools have great potential to expand their recruitment in Southeast Asia.”

Tina Ou, the Ho Chi Minh City office’s education attaché, says she organized four study-abroad information sessions last year, all of which were well attended.

Vong Phat Lien, a senior in the Oriental Studies Faculty at USSH Ho Chi Minh City, speaks Mandarin well. She remarks that her older sister is already studying in Taiwan and that she hopes to do the same.

TECO invited several guests who had themselves studied in Taiwan to speak at the session, and they were very persuasive. 

Nguyen Huy Bich, head of an alumni association for Vietnamese who have studied in Taiwan, was the first Vietnamese person to earn a degree from Taiwan’s National Central University. Hired to teach at a university immediately after returning to Vietnam in 2010, he became dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Nong Lam University in 2012. He uses his own experience to reassure the students in attendance: “You needn’t worry about Taiwan’s culture. It is very similar to Vietnam’s.”

Cu Huy Hiep, who earned a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan for nine months in 2014, now works for a Japanese company in Vietnam.

“Taiwan is my favorite place outside of Vietnam itself!” A well traveled young person who has visited ten countries, Cu speaks Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and English, and loves Taiwan. “Taiwan isn’t the most beautiful place, but its sense of harmony is very comforting.” He adds, “And I love stinky tofu! I eat it three times a week!”

Cu not only enjoys Taiwanese food and has fond memories of its people, but also did very well academically while in Taiwan: he won first prize in both a National Taiwan University Language Center essay contest and the third annual Fabulous Taiwan photography contest.

Taiwanese businesspeople in Vietnam have also been active behind the scenes encouraging Vietnamese to study in Taiwan.

David Liang, director-general of Ho Chi Minh City’s TECO office, says that most of the Taiwanese businesses operating in Vietnam are in for the long haul and are therefore very interested in cultivating capable local managers. “Encouraging people to study in Taiwan is a great way for them to go about this.”

By cooperating on the information sessions, officials, schools, alumni and businesses have encouraged many young Vietnamese to study in Taiwan.

Exporting education

In addition to holding information sessions on campuses, Taiwanese officials have established “Taiwan Education Centers” in Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

These centers are part of the Ministry of Education’s eight-year plan to export Chinese-language education. Their functions include providing information on Taiwanese schools and scholarships, assisting in the recruitment of students, and promoting Chinese-language education by providing Mandarin classes and Mandarin proficiency tests.

To that end, the Hanoi center has partnered with USSH Hanoi and Taiwan’s Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, while the Ho Chi Minh City center is working with USSH Ho Chi Minh City and Taiwan’s National Chi Nan University.

Nguyen Van Hieu is director of international affairs and programs at USSH Hanoi, and director of the Hanoi Taiwan Education Center. He says that since 2001 USSH has established relationships with a number of Taiwanese universities, including National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Cheng Kung University, Fu Jen Catholic University, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. USSH has also participated in a steady series of academic conferences, and student and faculty exchanges. Nguyen adds that the Hanoi Taiwan Education Center, which USSH Hanoi cofounded with Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in August 2014, has arranged Mandarin proficiency testing for more than 1,000 people in the last year and a half.

In March 2015, the center organized an expo on Taiwanese higher education on the USSH Hanoi campus, and invited 32 public and private universities and colleges to exhibit. The event proved popular, attracting more than 1,100 local students.

Taiwanese businesses, TECO Ho Chi Minh City, and the Taiwan Education Center are working together to help Taiwan’s universities recruit students in Vietnam.

Knowing both systems

“When you engage in multiple exchanges, you figure out how things work.” Ho Minh Quang, director of the  Taiwan Education Center in Ho Chi Minh City, says that Vietnamese students used to have a poor grasp of the Taiwanese educational system, but they’ve gained a clearer idea since the expo.

Vietnamese students are very interested in Taiwan’s universities. Nguyen Van Hieu has visited Taiwan for a number of exchanges and explains that its allure is a product of its highly developed educational system, and of its outstanding educational environment, study plans, faculty resources, and educational infrastructure.

He notes further that students needn’t fear for their personal safety in Taiwan, another plus when recruiting abroad. Ho Minh Quang, who has visited three times, says that his strongest impression of Taiwan is: “It’s very safe. You don’t worry about being robbed.”

The only thing that makes students hesitate is Taiwan’s use of traditional Chinese characters. Most Vietnamese universities use mainland Chinese instructional materials, and most of their Chinese majors learn simplified characters. These students therefore often feel somewhat intimidated by traditional characters.

Ho says that USSH Ho Chi Minh City has Chinese programs in three departments, only two of which offer some classes using traditional characters. Even here, Ho admits that the department's real objective is to teach students to write simplified characters while merely recognizing traditional ones.

According to the Ministry of Education, there were more than 14,000 foreign students studying in Taiwan during the 2014 academic year. Some 3,681 of these students were from Vietnam, a figure second only to that of Malaysia.

Nguyen says that well-to-do Vietnamese families typically send their children to study in the United States and the United Kingdom. Those who are less well off send their kids to mainland China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. However, most Hanoi students choose to study in mainland China, largely because it’s easy to get to. “Traveling overland to Yunnan, Guangdong, and Guangxi is easy.”

Lacking northern Vietnam’s geographic incentives, students from the south have a broader array of options. Ho says that Taiwan offers a nice living environment, which inclines parents to prefer it over Southeast Asia for their kids. “There’s no question that Taiwan has a better transportation system and better living environment than the other options.”

The root of deeper ties

People who have visited Taiwan are well aware of its allure. If we are to deepen ties with Vietnam, we need people who know both sides well to build bridges between us. 

In late 2015, the TECO office in Ho Chi Minh City hosted a banquet for 30-some Vietnamese young people who studied in Taiwan and have gone on to successful careers.

The National Cheng Kung University “gang” of a dozen or so alumni seated at one of the tables was particularly impressive. Dao Nguyen Dong Thai got a job with the Vietnamese branch of Taiwan’s China Steel Corporation after completing his IMBA in 2011; Vu Phuong Ha graduated in 2012 and went to work for the Vietnamese offices of Taiwan’s Vedan Co.; Pham Viet Cuong earned an electrical engineering degree in 2013 and currently teaches in the electrical engineering department at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. All of them found studying in Taiwan to be an unforgettable experience.

While in Hanoi, we happened to meet Lin Youru and Cai Mengru, two exchange students from the Vietnamese language section of the National University of Kaohsiung’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literature. The young women said that they intend to work in education, and that their experience in Vietnam has broadened their perspective on the world.

Whether fostering cultural exchange or cultivating deep roots, educational cooperation is a direct and far-reaching step in the right direction.

Nguyen Van Hieu (below), director of the Taiwan Education Center in Hanoi, says that Taiwan is the first choice for many Vietnamese hoping to study abroad because it has outstanding institutions of higher learning and a culture similar to that of Vietnam.

The Taiwan Education Center in Hanoi, jointly established by Taiwan’s Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi, provides a wide array of information on studying in Taiwan, including basic information on Taiwan’s colleges and universities.

Taiwanese companies have contributed to Hanoi’s rapid progress, giving rise to bright prospects for Mandarin education.