Taiwanese students increasingly travel to China for advance studies: scholar

The views of Arthur Shuh-fang Ding, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations (IIR) of the National Chengchi University, coincide with the concerns voiced by President Ma Ying-jeou.

President Ma recently expressed concerns about the sharply reduced number of Taiwan students who choose to pursue advanced studies at higher learning institutions in the U.S.

Ma earned his Ph.D. degree in law from Harvard University while Ding received his Ph.D. in government and international studies from University of Notre Dame.

Ding focuses research in the fields of the Republic of China’s national defense, U.S. foreign policy as well as mainland China’s security policy, national defense and military affairs.

He has recently led a team of Taiwan scholars to attend symposiums participated with American scholars from leading U.S. think tanks in Washington, D.C.

Ding expressed concern that Taiwan could fall behind the world trend in both the fields of science, technologies, and social sciences if fewer scholars or students carry out advanced studies in the U.S.

He suggested that people who already earned Ph.D. degrees in Taiwan or the Ph.D. candidates conduct at least one year of studies at leading universities to broaden their views and horizons.

It would be even better if they can conduct advanced researches even longer in the U.S., he said.

He pointed out there is a growing trend for Taiwan’s university graduates to conduct further studies in European institutions due to increasingly active promotion by European governments.

However, he also noted a growing trend for more Taiwanese students to conduct advanced studies in mainland China or at major think tanks on the mainland.