Higher education | 54 students in Taiwan request transfer to local universities

Fifty-four local residents who are currently enrolled in university programs in Taiwan have asked for a transfer to Macau universities, according to a report by Macao Daily News.

Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, in February, Taiwan implemented a policy that sought to restrict the entrance of Macau and Hong Kong residents to Taiwan, including Macau residents currently studying at Taiwanese universities.

As of Monday, the Higher Education Bureau (DSES) received a total of 179 inquiries from local residents who are university students in Taiwan asking to transfer to a Macau university.

So far, the DSES has already approved five cases. Three students have already registered and will start attending local universities in September.

According to a report by TVBS News, nearly 8,000 students from Macau and Hong Kong have not returned to Taiwan due to the island’s recent policies restricting the admittance to Taiwan for residents of the SARs. The report said that National Taiwan University has 978 students from Macau and Hong Kong and over 500 of them are still not able to enter Taiwan.

The Macau contingency consists of about 1,200 students who are unable to return to Taiwan to resume their studies. In total, around 4,500 students from Macau are studying at universities in Taiwan at Tamkang University, Ming Chuan University, National Taiwan University, and Soochow University, among others. 

Meanwhile, as of 4 p.m. on Monday, nearly 1,200 local parents had registered their children for facemask purchases. These children are currently studying outside Macau, in areas including Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Portugal, and Australia.

In order to assist Macau residents who are studying outside of the city, the DSES launched an online system to help them buy facemasks.

Qualified students can register online through this system. Their family members can collect the facemasks and have them sent abroad to their place of residence. The registration must be completed before 5 p.m. tomorrow.