Are you an Overseas Chinese Student? 收藏

大學問編輯部 2022-06-24 2022-06-24 Global

If you are residing overseas and would like to pursue further studies in Taiwan, you can either apply the joint admissions, i.e., individual application or united distribution, organized by the University Entrance Committee For Overseas Chinese Students (UECOCS), or the individual recruitment hosted by different universities. For both channels, apart from academic requirements, you will have to meet the eligibility of being an overseas Chinese student and get validated by the Overseas Community Affairs Council, ROC (OCAC). For university’s individual recruitment, you can apply as an international student as well. However, once you have chosen to apply as either of the student statuses, you have to maintain it throughout the whole study. In general, foreign students usually choose to apply as “overseas Chinese students”, because they will entitle to have more benefits and assistance during their study in Taiwan.

Overseas Chinese Students

Overseas Chinese students refer to students of Chinese descendants residing outside Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the Republic of China. Even though they were born outside Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China with other nationalities, as long as they are with Chinese ethnicity, they are considered as overseas Chinese students.

Eligibility for application

If you were born outside Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China and meet one of the following requirements, as well as stay in Taiwan for no more than 120 days in a calendar year (from 1^st January to 31^st December), you are eligible to be an overseas Chinese student to pursue further studies in Taiwan.

1. Resided outside Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China since birth and until the time of admission application.

2. Resided outside Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China for more than 6 consecutive years, counting backwards from the application deadline, or 8 years if you are applying for medicine, Chinese medicine or dentistry departments, and have a permanent or long-term overseas residence certificate.

Take the admission exercise in 2022 as an example. The following is the calculation of overseas residency requirement set by UECOCS and Ministry of Education, Taiwan, for overseas Chinese students:

If you do not meet the 6-year or 8-year overseas residency requirement until 31^st August of the same year as the application deadline, you can still submit an application by filling in an affidavit.

6 Benefits of being an overseas Chinese student

If you choose to pursue further studies in Taiwan as an overseas Chinese student, you are entitled to have the following 6 benefits:

1. You are entitled to have 70 choices of departments in your priority list when joining the UECOCS’s united distribution, meaning that you will have 70 chances of being allocated a place for study;

2. You are entitled to enjoy the same tuition and miscellaneous fees as local students in Taiwan;

3. You are eligible to apply for the scholarships and financial aids provided by the Taiwan government and the OCAC exclusively for overseas Chinese students;

4. You are entitled to enjoy 50% discount offered by the OCAC for your medical insurance premiums during the first 6 months upon arriving in Taiwan;

5. If you are a disadvantaged student and have the low-income certificate issued by recognized parties, you are entitled to receive the OCAC’s subsidy, which is 30% of your national health insurance premiums;

6. You are entitled to receive the counseling service provided by the OCAC during study and after graduation.

★ For further details, please visit the website of OCAC and the Regulations Regarding Study and Counseling Assistance for Overseas Chinese Students in Taiwan.